da 888： The nominees for this year's men's award have been announced and two of the biggest names in world football are among those to have been overlooked

da 888casino： The nominees for the 2023 Ballon d'Or were released on Wednesday evening in the most convoluted, tedious and frustrating fashion possible. Award organisers France Football published the contenders for this year's men's trophy in six batches of five players over more than two hours on Twitter, with the two favourites, seven-time winner Lionel Messi and Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland, obviously among those included.

However, some big names were notable by their absence.

Cristiano Ronaldo's omission will obviously dominate the headlines but, as GOAL outlines below, he and a couple of fellow forwards didn't actually deserve to make the cut.

There were, though, some shocking oversights, with treble-winner John Stones among those surprisingly snubbed…

GettyFederico Dimarco

Inter had two players nominated for the Ballon d'Or in Nicolo Barella and Lautaro Martinez but not a single member of the defence that played such an integral role in Simone Inzaghi's side reaching the Champions League final, as well as completely nullifying the threat posed by Haaland in Istanbul.

Federico Dimarco is certainly entitled to feel a little miffed. As well as doing excellent defensive work throughout Inter's surprise European run, the childhood Inter fan also excelled going forward, with only Kevin De Bruyne (six) registering more assists that the Italian (five).

Dimarco also ended the season with 14 goal involvements overall, scoring six himself, to rank fourth among defenders across Europe's 'Big Five' leagues. The 25-year-old was never a serious contender to win the Ballon d'Or but a little recognition would have been nice!

AdvertisementGettyCasemiro

Casemiro is copping plenty of flak right now – and some of it is justified. But the Brazilian is not being helped by playing in such an unbalanced Manchester United midfield.

It's also worth remembering that the Ballon d'Or voting is based on last season's performances and Casemiro was fantastic for the Red Devils in 2022-23, having a transformative effect on Erik ten Hag's team following his arrival from Real Madrid.

Indeed, there is simply no getting away from the fact that United would never have ended their trophy drought or got themselves back into the Champions League without Casemiro, who was also one of his country's best players at the World Cup.

So, the fact that he's not made the 30-strong shortlist for the Ballon d'Or is truly puzzling.

Getty ImagesMarc-Andre ter Stegen

Has the German been punished for Barcelona's Champions League group-stage elimination? One would imagine so, given it's difficult to think of any other reason why Marc-Andre ter Stegen was ignored. The criminally-underrated 31-year-old was absolutely outstanding last season, as the numbers underline.

He featured in all 38 of Barcelona's games during their dominant Liga triumph and conceded just 18 goals. Ter Stegen also kept more clean sheets in all competitions than any other goalkeeper in Europe (28) – while maintaining a staggering 75 percent save success rate.

It really is hard to know what more he could have done to get a Ballon d'Or nod, given he was one of the outstanding individuals in a successful team.

Getty Marcus Rashford

A seriously strange omission. According to Opta, only six players were directly involved in more goals in all competitions last season than Marcus Rashford (39) and they all made the Ballon d'Or shortlist. Even those immediately below him on that particular ranking – Lautaro Martinez, Kevin De Bruyne, Harry Kane and Karim Benzema – were included. So, why was Rashford overlooked?

The Manchester United forward took his game to a whole other level under Ten Hag, scoring 30 goals in total and registering nine assists, while he also shone nearly every single time he set foot on the field for England at the World Cup, netting three times at the tournament.

Randal Kolo Muani had a fine season for Eintracht Frankfurt and secured himself a deserved move to Paris Saint-Germain during the summer, but one would be hard pressed to argue that he warranted a Ballon d'Or nomination over Rashford.