Football star Son Heung-min has been nominated for the world’s top player award for 2019.
Son was the only Asian player on the list of 30 nominees for the Ballon d’Or Award.
South Korean football star Son Heung-min has been nominated for the world’s top player award for 2019.
Son was the only Asian player on the list of 30 nominees for the Ballon d’Or Award, presented by “France Football” magazine to recognize the top footballer each year. The list was announced in Paris on Monday (local time).
Son scored some key goals to lift Tottenham Hotspur to their first UEFA Champions League final this year, and he ranked second on the team behind Harry Kane with 12 goals in the Premier League.
Son will be up against UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Virgil van Dijk and a pair of five-time Ballon d’Or winners, Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus.
Son is the third South Korean to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or, after former Anderlecht forward Seol Ki-hyeon in 2002 and ex-Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung in 2005. There were 50 candidates in those years, and neither Seol nor Park earned a vote from international journalists.
The award ceremony is Dec. 2 in Paris.
Neymar not nominated for Ballon d’Or
PARIS (AP) — Lionel Messi will have Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk as rivals for the 2019 Ballon d’Or award. But not Neymar.
When the long list of 30 candidates was announced Monday — in the city where Neymar has played for more than two years at Paris Saint-Germain — the Brazil star’s name was missing from the nominations by a global voting panel of journalists.
Messi and Ronaldo’s 10-year grip on the individual award organized by France Football magazine was broken by Luka Modric last December.
Modric is also absent one year after he swept the Ballon d’Or and FIFA best player awards after a stellar 2018 with Real Madrid and Croatia.
World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe is favored to add a Ballon d’Or to her FIFA award won last month.
The United States star is joined on a 20-woman list by teammates Tobin Heath and Alex Morgan. Defending her title is Ada Hegerberg, winner of the inaugural women’s award, from Europe’s dominant club team Lyon which has six nominees.
Neymar has twice placed third in Ballon d’Or voting, both times finishing behind Messi and Ronaldo. Moving out of Messi’s shadow in Barcelona, where they won a Champions League title together in 2015, has not delivered the personal acclaim Neymar sought. Messi won his sixth FIFA award last month, edging Van Dijk who starred in Liverpool’s Champions League-winning team. Van Dijk would be the first defender topping the poll since Italy’s World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro in 2006.
The Liverpool center back was among seven teammates nominated, including Alisson Becker and Roberto Firmino. They also won the Copa America with a Brazil team that managed without an injured Neymar.
Van Dijk and Georginio Wijnaldum also figured in the five nominees from a resurgent Netherlands team. No Dutch player has won since Marco van Basten in 1992.