The 2021 Ballon d’OR was held on Monday, November 29, 2021 in the French Capital of Paris.
Lionel Messi was the biggest winner of the night, taking home his seventh Ballon d’OR award.
Bayern Munich's prolific striker, Robert Lewandowski came second with 580 votes, 33 short of Messi's 613 votes. Chelsea midfielder, Jorginho followed with 460 votes, Real Madrid's Karim Benzema came forth with 239 votes as Chelsea's N'golo Kante completed the top five with 186 votes.
The award list had an initial thirty players before it was narrowed down to the top five before Lionel Messi was eventually selected.
In the top thirty list, only two African players appeared and none was a Ghanaian or had some association with Ghanaian.
Liverpool and Egyptian forward Lionel Messi emerged seventh with Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez coming 20th.
Michael Essien remains the last Ghanaian to have been nominated for the award which is organized by the France Football Magazine.
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Below is the list of the 30 nominees for the Ballon d’OR
Ballon d'Or 2021 full results
29=. Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea)
29=. Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
26=. Gerard Moreno (Villarreal)
26=. Ruben Dias (Manchester City)
26=. Nicolo Barella (Inter Milan)
25. Phil Foden (Manchester City)
24. Pedri (Barcelona)
23. Harry Kane (Tottenham)
21=. Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan)
21=. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)
20. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
19. Mason Mount (Chelsea)
18. Simon Kjaer (AC Milan)
17. Luis Suarez (Atletico Madrid)
16. Neymar (PSG)
15. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)
14. Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus)
13. Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus)
12. Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea)
11. Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund)
10. Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG)
9. Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
8. Kevin De Bruyne
7. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
6. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
5. N'golo Kante (Chelsea)
4. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
3. Jorginho (Chelsea)
2. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
1. Lionel Messi (PSG)
