Lucy Bronze 20th place in the Feminine Award!

Another great campaign for the Lionesses full-back.

Gabi Portilho and Giulia Gwinn are just outside the top 20.

Toni Rüdiger is in 22nd and then it’s Arsenal star Bukayo Saka, who narrowly misses out on the top 20 this year, at 21st after another outstanding season with the Gunners.

Another brilliant goal at the weekend!

There was a goalkeeper, Lev Yashin, and three defenders, with Fabio Cannavaro more of a stopper than 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 gave Manchester City their first Champions League title, could be a history maker in other ways.

But then why should he? The Ballon d’Or was usually reserved for strikers and talented players. His job description entails selflessness. The defensive midfielder is built to enable others to achieve glory. And yet the paradox of Rodri is that he has reached such a standard and achieved so much himself for his respective teams that he is back in the spotlight.

Richard Jolly on what Rodri’s victory would mean:

Aitana Bonmati is in the house!

The Barcelona icon won the Feminine Award last year and is the favorite again this time.

He won’t win 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 his sights on winning the Ballon d’Or in the future.

“I want to be the first full-back to ever do it (win the award),” he told Sky Sports. “Only the morning after retirement can you look in the mirror and say: ‘I gave everything I could’.”

“It doesn’t matter how many trophies you win or how many medals you have. It depends on what you give to the game and whether you use it to its full potential.

“(I want to be remembered as a legend of football, as someone who changed the game.” That’s the main thing I have: ‘Don’t play the game; change the game’. I want to embrace the legacy, to be the best right-back to ever play football.

“I have to reach for the stars, and that’s where I believe my ceiling can be reached.”

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

Given how the top flight is shaping up, it’s likely we’ll see these names again in a year’s time.

Now an English men’s duo: Arsenal’s Declan Rice is first, 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 of course scored a goal in the Euro 2024 final.

We continue with the first men’s nominees and their rankings:

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

Alejandro Grimaldo is ranked 28th after an outstanding year at Bayer Leverkusen, followed by PSG’s Vitinha in 27th.

Well, based on that Wiegman comment about the awards taking place during a women’s international break, we can assume that the Ballon d’Or organizers are already facing more criticism here, and rightly so.

The first ten female nominees have been grouped together, five in a single post – the first collection of incoming male names is individualized and provided with accompanying videos etc.

Not quite the justice they’re trying to portray, is it?

Lucy Bronze, Lauren James and Lauren Hemp made the 30-strong shortlist for the Ballon d’Or Feminin, while Wiegman herself was nominated for Women’s Coach of the Year. Despite James being injured, the Lionesses are preparing for Tuesday night’s friendly against South Africa in Coventry as the Ballon d’Or ceremony takes place and neither Bronze nor Hemp will be able to attend the star-studded evening.

It will be a similar story for several other leading nations across Europe, with Aitana Bonmati, the favorite to win the Ballon d’Or Feminin title, having to play for Spain in Italy on Tuesday night.