Ballon d’Or LIVE: Latest updates as Real Madrid boycott Paris ceremony

Toni Rudiger ranks at 22 and then it’s Arsenal star Bukayo Saka who just misses out on the top 20 this year, in at 21 after another stellar campaign with the Gunners.

Another brilliant goal at the weekend, too!

There has been one goalkeeper, Lev Yashin, and a trio of defenders, though Fabio Cannavaro was more of a stopper than the German midfielders, Franz Beckenbauer and Matthias Sammer, who were converted into sweepers. But there has never been a defensive midfielder. The Ballon d’Or is almost seven decades old and Rodri, the man who earned Manchester City their first Champions League, could be a history maker in another respect.

But then why would he? The Ballon d’Or has tended to be reserved for forwards and flair players. His job description entails unselfishness. The defensive midfielder is constructed to allow others to get the glory. And yet the paradox of Rodri is that he has reached such a standard, achieved so much himself for his respective teams, that the spotlight has shone back onto him.

Richard Jolly on what Rodri winning would mean:

Aitana Bonmati is in the house!

The Barcelona icon won the Feminin award last year and is favourite to do so again this time around.

He won’t be winning the award this year – Dani Carvajal and Ale Grimaldo are the only full-backs in the running – but Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold has already set himself the goal of winning the Ballon d’Or in future.

“I want to be the first full-back to ever do it [win the award],” he told Sky Sports. “It’s only the morning after you retire that you’re able to look in the mirror and say, ‘I gave it everything I got’.

“It doesn’t matter how many trophies you win, or how many medals you’ve got. It matters what you give to the game and if you reach your full potential.

“[I want to be remembered as] a legend of football, someone who changed the game. That is the main thing that I have – ‘don’t play the game; change the game’. I want that legacy of being the greatest right-back to have played football.

“I have got to reach for the stars and that’s where I believe my ceiling can go.”

Two more Premier League stars: defensive duo William Saliba and Ruben Dias are next out.

Feels likely we’ll see those names again a year from now, given how the top flight is going.

An England men’s pair now: Arsenal’s Declan Rice is first up, placing 26th, and after his first full senior season it’s an incredible 25th for Cole Palmer.

Not a bad year for the Chelsea superstar, who went on to score in the Euro 2024 final of course.

On we go then with the first few men’s nominees and their placings:

Joint 29th are Artem Dovbyk of Girona last season and Mats Hummels of Dortmund last season – both now of Roma.

Alejandro Grimaldo places 28th after a stellar year with Bayer Leverkusen, then PSG’s Vitinha in 27th.

Well, on the back of that Wiegman comment about the awards taking place during a women’s international break, we can expect the Ballon d’Or organisers to get some further criticism here already and rightly so.

Those first ten female nominees have been grouped together, five in a single post – the first collection of men’s names coming through are individualised and with accompanying videos and so on.

Not quite the equity they seek to portray is it?

Lucy Bronze, Lauren James and Lauren Hemp have made the 30-player shortlist for the Ballon d’Or Feminin, while Wiegman herself has been nominated for women’s coach of the year. Although James is injured, the Lionesses will be preparing for Tuesday night’s friendly against South Africa in Coventry while the Ballon d’Or ceremony takes place and neither Bronze or Hemp will be able to join the star-studded evening.

It will be similar for several other leading nations across Europe and Aitana Bonmati, the favourite to retain the Ballon d’Or Feminin, will be required to play for Spain in Italy on Tuesday evening.

Chelsea’s Sjoeke Nusken is 25th, Bayern Munich captain Glodis Perla Viggosdottir ranks 22nd and another Chelsea player is just outside the top 20 in Mayra Ramirez.