Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, David de Gea and Memphis Depay are on the FIFA Ballon d’Or longlist.
The long-list has been leaked by Spanish paper Mundo Deportivo, and United have the third-most players out of the Premier League clubs, with Manchester City (Bony, Yaya Toure, Agüero, Otamendi and de Bruyne) leading the way with five and Chelsea second with four (Diego Costa, Willian, Courtois and Hazard).
Depay has presumably been nominated for his performances for PSV Eindhoven last season, scoring 28 goals in 40 appearances in all competitions as he led PSV to the Eredivisie title. de Gea, meanwhile, had a fantastic season in goal for the Reds, making some incredible saves to rescue points for United, and at the end of last season was named in the PFA Team of the Year as well as being named as both the club’s Players’ Player of the Year and Fans’ Player of the Year.
Rooney’s nomination, however, is a bit of a surprise, given that he wasn’t in the best of form. Despite reaching double figures in the goal tally for the eleventh straight season, the captain was shuffled around, playing in a number of positions throughout last season and his form was quite patchy.
The longlist will be whittled down to a shortlist of 23 players, compiled by members of FIFA’s Football Committee as well as a group of experts from France Football, and will be made public in December. Journalists, national coaches and national captains will then vote for the winner of the award from this list.
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is the hot favourite to win the Ballon d’Or for the fifth time this year, with former United man Cristiano Ronaldo a close second in the running. As for the United players, don’t be surprised if none of them show up in the final shortlist, although I would give de Gea an outside chance of appearing in the final running.
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