Ballon d’Or award is a prestigious award given to the best footballer of the year by the FIFA. FIFA announced the candidates who have been shortlisted for this award for this year. Star of the Real Madrid team, Cristiano Ronaldo and stars of the rival Barcelona team Lionel Messi and Neymar are the front runners for this prestigious award.
It is to be noted that Ronaldo has been awarded this award for the last two years and before that Messi won this award for four consecutive years. Neymar has not won this award yet in his career. Ronaldo and Messi have been nominated for the award for the eighth consecutive year. The winners will be announced in Zurich on January 11th of next year. The three candidates were shortlisted from several other nominations that included a total of 23 players. Ronaldo has scored 48 goals in 51 matches, Messi has scored 44 goals in 54 matches and Neymar has scored 42 goals in 54 matches.