Murray, S. Williams eye Australian Open comeback
Cristiano Ronaldo leads the final 30-man list of nominations for the Ballon d’or and hopes to add a fifth title to draw level with Lionel Messi.
The Premier League representation is led by Eden Hazard after he helped guide Chelsea to the Premier League title last term, the Mirror reported.
Several omissions have raised eyebrows though with Alexis Sanchez drawing outrage from the Arsenal faithful.
Here’s four more who, alongside the Chilean, who can consider themselves unfortunate to miss out on the prestigious 30.
Casemiro (Real Madrid/brazil)
The Brazilian midfielder became a lynchpin for Zinedine Zidane in 2015-16, and during the 2016-17 season took his game to another level.
Sitting in front of the back four, he both offered a defensive protection and assurance in possession for the European champions, and was outstanding when the big games came around.
He also added big goals, a couple of long-range fliers – notably against Napoli and Juventus in the Champions League – showed that his talent has continued to blossom further.
Doesn’t get the plaudits of Real teammates Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, but perhaps should and is bitterly unlucky to miss out on the 30-man shortlist.
Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus/argentina)
Much-maligned by some for his high-profile misses, nobody can deny he is an elite center-forward over the course of a season.
While Pipita might be incapable of dragging a team like Juventus over the line for a Champions League, he can take the Italian side to the brink, which many other teams would take.
The 29-year-old managed 32 goals in all competitions last year, in addition to five in Europe’s biggest club competition.
Edin Dzeko enjoyed a great year with Roma, but Higuain performed at a higher level and, judging by the Real Madrid nominees, deserved it more due to his team’s collective achievement.
Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich/germany)
The consensus best goalkeeper on the planet has been omitted.
While Neuer’s season was cut short through injury, his absence has not been prolonged enough to miss out altogether, especially with three other goalkeepers making the list.
David De Gea, Gianluigi Buffon and Jan Oblak make the list, but while others lean on their reputation, Neuer can consider himself unfortunate to not be recognized this year.
Last year’s third place therefore fails to make the final cut.
Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal/chile)
The Arsenal star had a sensational year leading the Gunners and Chile.
He ended the season with 30 goals in all competitions and inspired Arsenal to glory against Chelsea in the FA Cup final.
A pivotal winner against Ecuador looks to have set up La Roja for an automatic place at Russia 2018, too, which makes his exclusion even more baffling given his country’s prominence in international football in recent years.
Ousmane Dembele (Dortmund/barcelona/france)
The second most expensive player in the world has failed to make the final cut for this year’s Ballon d’or award.
Barcelona shelled out £135.5 million to prize the French starlet away from Borussia Dortmund.
His excellent campaign should not be forgotten, despite suffering an injury already at the Camp Nou.
Dembele hit 10 goals and added 21 more assists to convince the Blaugrana he can replace Neymar after his move to PSG. Andy Murray will take his place in the draw for the Australian Open next January, according to the tournament director.
The five-time runner-up in Melbourne has been out injured since he exited Wimbledon with a hip injury in July having made the decision to take the remainder of the season off for his recovery, Eurosport reported.
The British number one’s future in the sport has even been brought into question as a result of the injury with fans fearing that he may struggle to recapture his form and fitness.
But the Australian Open’s tournament director Craig Tiley is adamant that Murray, along with Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori who have also struggled through persistent injuries, will be fit and firing come January for the first Grand Slam of the season.
“I’m very happy to confirm that all the top players will be back in Melbourne in January,” Tiley said at the tournament’s launch, streamed on Twitter.
“On the men’s side, there has been a lot of concern and conjecture around Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori.
“I can tell you that in talking to Andy, he has been training and he is preparing for having a great year in 2018.
“How much would this year have hurt him, to watch over the entire year Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal] share four grand slam titles – he would not have like that.”
“As competitive as Andy is, we know he’s back and he’ll want to improve his current ranking of number three in the world and getting back to number one.”
Serena set for title defense
Meanwhile, Serena Williams also appears set to return to Melbourne Park to defend the title she won in Melbourne while eight weeks pregnant.
Tiley described Serena as having a “special relationship” with the Australian Open, and very much expects the 35-yearold to be ready to go come January.
“Serena, the competitor that she is, she wants to win more than the 23 Grand Slam titles that she has,” he said.
“We have a special relationship with Serena, the Williams family, both her and Venus. She wants to come back in 2018 and defend her title. Obviously, at training now, there is several months to go and it will be up to her as far as where she is with her fitness.”
Tiley’s announcement comes a month after Serena’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, exclusively told Eurosport at the U.S. Open that she was targeting her return for being in time for Melbourne.
Additionally, Tiley confirmed the prize money for next year’s tournament will rise by 10 percent to 55 million Australian dollars (£32.5 million), with the men and women’s champions earning 4 million Australian dollars (£2.3 million).