It is no longer news that the Ballon d’Or awards will not be held this year because of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. In its place, France Football have announced an ambitious replacement: the selection of “the greatest XI in history”, with a total of 10 nominees in each position.
The first set of 40 nominees for the Ballon d’Or Dream Team – goalkeeper, right back, left back and centre back – was released on Monday, 5 October.
The midfielder nominees will be made public on Monday, 12 October, followed by the forwards a week later.
The 170 journalists who regularly vote for the Ballon d’Or, including AS honorary president Alfredo Relaño, will be tasked with choosing the final XI, with the prestigious selection to be announced on 17 December.
The list:
Ajax: Donny van de Beek, Dusan Tadić
Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Atletico Madrid: João Félix
Barcelona: Frenkie de Jong, Marc-André ter Stegen, Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann
Bayern Munich: Robert Lewandowski
Juventus: Cristiano Ronaldo, Matthjis de Ligt
Liverpool: Sadio Mané, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson, Georginio Wijnaldum, Virgil van Djik, Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah
Manchester City: Sergio Agüero, Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling
Napoli: Kalidou Koulibaly
PSG: Kylian Mbappé, Marquinhos
Real Madrid: Karim Benzema, Eden Hazard
Tottenham: Hugo Lloris, Heung-min Son
