A list of the Ballon d’Or nominees has been leaked on Friday and some interesting names are included.
Apart from the usual suspects like Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, players like David De Gea, Alexis Sanchez, Yaya Toure, Philippe Coutinho, make the cut.
Thanks to their international performances, QPR midfielder Massimo Luongo, Eduardo Vargas and Christian Atsu are also included.
Only two of the footballers on the list ply their trade outside of Europe.
The notable absentees are Mesut Ozil, David Silva, Gerard Pique, Philipp Lahm, Marco Reus and Vincent Kompany.
Ballon d’Or longlist nominees – by club
Barcelona Lionel Messi, Claudio Bravo, Javier Mascherano, Andreas Iniesta, Ivan Rakitic, Neymar, Luis Suarez.
Real Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, James Rodriguez, Toni Kroos.
Manchester United Wayne Rooney, David De Gea, Memphis Depay (also PSV).
Manchester City Wilfried Bony, Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero, Nicolas Otamendi (also Valencia), Kevin De Bruyne (also Wolfsburg).
Arsenal David Ospina, Alexis Sanchez.
Chelsea Willian, Thibaut Courtois, Eden Hazard, Diego Costa.
Juventus Giorgio Chiellini, Paul Pogba, Alvaro Morata, Andrea Pirlo (also New York City), Carlos Tevez (also Boca Juniors).
Bayern Munich Robert Lewandowski, Arjen Robben, David Alaba, Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer, Arturo Vidal (also Juventus).
Paris Saint-Germain Edinson Cavan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Javier Pastore.
Other English club representation Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool), Heung-Min Son (Bayer Leverkusen/Tottenham), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Christian Atsu (Everton/Bournemouth), Eduardo Vargas (QPR/Hoffenheim), Andre Ayew (Marseille/Swansea), Shinji Okazaki (Mainz/Leicester), Massimo Luongo (QPR/Swindon Town).
Other world football Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Jackson Martinez (Porto/Atletico Madrid), Carlos Bacca (Sevilla/AC Milan), Giovani dos Santos (Villarreal/LA Galaxy), Paolo Guerrero (Flamengo/Corinthians), Gary Medel (Inter Milan), Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon), Andres Guardado (PSV Eindhoven), Carlos Sanchez (River Plate) .
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