2016 Ballon d'Or Award - Real Madrid stalwarts Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Manchester City's Sergio Aguero Nominated Monday Oct 24,2016

Real Madrid stalwarts Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Manchester City's Sergio Aguero were nominated for the coveted 2016 Ballon d'Or football award, a French sports magazine France Football announced on Monday Oct 24,2016

2016 Ballon d'Or shortlist

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund), Gareth Bale (Real Madrid), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City), Paulo Dybala (Juventus), Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Koke (Atletico Madrid), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Robert Levandowski (Bayern Munich).

Having broken ties with the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the guidelines of the 2016 edition of the Ballon d'Or have been simplified.

The voting board for 2016 is to comprise only of international journalists, thus scrapping the delegations of international football team coaches and captains.

The date of the award ceremony for the 61st edition of the Ballon d'Or is yet to be officially announced.

In the last seven years, six of which were in partnership with FIFA, the Ballon d'Or podium has been dominated by Ronaldo (2013, '14) and FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi (2009, '10, '11, '12, '15)

 

British Ballon d'Or winners

Year	Player	Nation	Club
1956	Stanley Matthews	England	Blackpool
1964	Denis Law	Scotland	Manchester United
1966	Bobby Charlton	England	Manchester United
1968	George Best	Northern Ireland	Manchester United
1978	Kevin Keegan	England	Hamburg
1979	Kevin Keegan	England	Hamburg
2001	Michael Owen	England	Liverpool