5:02PM
But anger among women footballers about scheduling
By Tom Garry, women’s football reporter in Leuven
England are calling for changes to the Ballon d’Or award ceremony’s scheduling in future so that more women’s players can attend the event.
Monday night’s glitzy awards show at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris comes in the midst of a wave of women’s international fixtures around the world, in the middle of October’s women’s international break, and the Lionesses are in action on Tuesday away against Belgium.
England and Bayern Munich midfielder Georgia Stanway, who is one of four Lionesses stars who have been nominated for the award, says they have agreed not to go to Paris so they can instead focus on preparing to face Belgium on Tuesday. Chelsea defender Millie Bright, Aston Villa striker Rachel Daly and Manchester United goalkeeper Mary Earps are the other three England players in contention for the prize.
“It would be really nice if things like that were organised [so] that players have the opportunity to join too,” said England head coach Sarina Wiegman. “We have to do a job, that’s what we’re here for [in Belgium] so you can’t attend that.”
Stanway said being nominated was “very cool” but added: “It is unfortunate we couldn’t be there. That is something we spoke [about] as a player group and we kind of said it would be nice in the future if it wasn’t on a matchday-1, so that we could enjoy the experience.”
Asked if the timing was frustrating, when speaking at England’s pre-match press conference, Stanway replied: “Yes it is, because it is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You never know if you are ever going to get selected for such an accolade like that again.
“So it would be really nice to enjoy the experience and be there, and feel like a star amongst the stars. But yes, unfortunately - well, not unfortunately because we have got a game tomorrow - but if it was planned a little bit better then maybe it would be easier for a lot of female footballers to be there.”
The ‘feminin’ award category was only added by the Ballon d’Or’s organisers, France Football, in 2018. That year, the ceremony hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons after the inaugural women’s winner, Norway icon Ada Hegerberg, was asked to twerk on stage by a presenter. This is only one prize on offer for women’s players, compared to three for men’s players, because there are additional prizes for the best male player under the age of 21 and the best male goalkeeper, but no female equivalents.
World Cup and Champions League-winning Spain and Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati is the red-hot favourite to win the women’s award this year.
Spain head coach Montse Tome said earlier on Monday morning that her side’s training session times have been adjusted to allow some of her players to attend the ceremony in Paris. Spain are currently in Zurich ahead of a match against Switzerland on Tuesday.
But many other women’s nominees are not attending, or facing lengthy travel plans in order to do so. The four-time world champions the United States had a fixture against Colombia on the west coast of America in San Diego on Sunday evening. Colombia winger Linda Caicedo missed that match in order to travel to Paris.
Chelsea star Maren Mjelde told her native Norway’s TV 2 television station: “It’s not the first time it happens, so I’m not surprised. It’s sad, especially for the nominees. It should be possible to plan it better.”
4:54PM
Jude Bellingham
of Real Madrid and England is tipped for the Young Player award; here’s a heatmap of how he’s been getting it done recently for Madrid.
4:12PM
Lionel Messi to be crowned?
Good afternoon and welcome to our live blog coverage of the Ballon D’Or ceremony, which will identify the greatest footballer active in the world today. It is hard to see beyond Lionel Messi, who captained Argentina to the World Cup in 2022. He was the man of the match in that and he scored twice, which seems like a pretty good case in and of itself, and that’s without even getting into the fact that he is regarded by most good judges as the best player of his generation. And indeed perhaps other generations too. Do you think that Lionel Messi is the greatest footballer of all time? Please let us know in the comments section below.
Messi has won the award on seven occasions so far and seems certain to add an eighth to that list tonight. The ceremony comes to us from the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Didier Drogba will be doing hosting duties and the awarding period runs from August 2022 and the nominations were done by September.
There are other awards to be had tonight, including the Ballon d’Or Féminin, which is self explanatory. And also the Kopa Trophy for the best young player, with England’s own Jude Bellingham among the front-runners.
There’s also the Yashin Trophy for best goalie and the Gerd Muller Trophy for the best forward/attacker. A Club of the Year award will be presented.
Spain’s Aitana Bonmati is the favorite for the women’s award after leading her country to victory at the Women’s World Cup in August.
Paris Saint-Germain and France forward Kylian Mbappe and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland are among the men playing, surely, for the places tonight as football prepares to crowd the little genius Messi. For the first time since 2003, Messi’s great rival Cristiano Ronaldo is not in the running for the men’s award. Join us for all the gossip, pictures and action from the event.
