Messi was not nominated for the 'Ballon d'Or' award for the first time in 17 years

 For the first time in 17 years, the world famous football player Lionel Messi could not be nominated for the Ballon d'Or 2022 award for the best player of the year.

French football officials announced the 30-player nominations for the Player of the Year award on Friday (August 12), which did not include Lionel Messi for the first time since 2005.

Messi, who has won the Ballon d'Or award seven times, scored just 11 goals in 34 matches for Paris Saint-Germain last season and is believed to have missed out on the player of the year award due to a poor performance. Couldn't make it to the nominations.

Apart from this, Brazil's famous footballer Neymar is also out of this list, but Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo has been nominated for the best footballer of the year by scoring 18 goals in 31 matches for Manchester United, but this time France's Karim Benzema has been nominated for this award. Being declared as a favorite.

The French footballer played a key role in Real Madrid winning the Champions League and La Liga, scoring 44 goals last season.

The best footballer of the year will be announced on October 17 this year.

It should be noted that the Ballon d'Or award is given by France Football to the best footballer of the year, while 180 journalists from around the world vote for the winner.

Last year, Lionel Messi won the award for a record 7th time.