{"id":50253,"date":"2022-08-12T19:28:38","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T19:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africannewspaper.net\/2022\/08\/12\/ballon-dor-2022-messi-zapped-four-africans-among-the-finalists\/"},"modified":"2022-08-12T19:28:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T19:28:59","slug":"ballon-dor-2022-messi-zapped-four-africans-among-the-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africannewspaper.net\/2022\/08\/12\/ballon-dor-2022-messi-zapped-four-africans-among-the-finalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballon d’Or 2022: Messi zapped, four Africans among the finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
France Football will now award its Ballon d’Or, as announced a few month ago, at the end the sports season and not at end of the calendar year, as was usual. The French media revealed the list of 30 finalists on Friday, August 12th. This is the first time since 2005 that the list of 30 finalists has been revealed. Lionel Messi<\/a>Is not there. He is a genius Argentinian, twice Ballon d’Or winner and seven-time winner of this prestigious distinction. He was the only one to score six goals in Ligue 1 but he also suffered a terrible elimination in 8.e<\/sup>Champions League final. However, his eternal rival Cristiano Rojo is on the list. However, it is almost certain the Portuguese will not win his 6e<\/sup> Golden Ball. He is actually out of a white season at Manchester United. He too was eliminated from C1.<\/p>\n His former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema is certain to be the 2022 Ballon d’Or winning player. The Senegalese is among the finalists. The new Bayern Munich player could be fourth in 2019, and absent from the 30-of the 2021 edition. This is the highest ranking African player since Liberian Georges Weah in 1995. Observers regularly cite the Teranga Lion among the candidates for this podium. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Riyad Mahrez (City, Algeria) and S\u00e9bastien Haller are the other Africans present in the list of 30 nominees.<\/p>\n Nominated to the 2022 Ballon d’Or…\u2728\ud83c\udf15<\/p>\n \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddee @HallerSeb<\/a>@BVB<\/a>#ballondor<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/5F6Qn4hNAN<\/a><\/p>\n\n