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Ballon d'Or nominees: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luka Modric on list

Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has been named among 30 nominees for the men's Ballon d'Or trophy awarded by France Football magazine. The Portugal captain has won the award for the past two years and five times in all, a record he shares with Argentina's Lionel Messi who is also on the list.

The winners of the prestigious men's and women's awards will be announced at a ceremony in Paris on Dec. 3, starting at 3 ET/8 GMT and will be hosted by David Ginola.

European champions Real Madrid dominate the men's nominees with eight players, including Croatia midfielder Luka Modric and Wales forward Gareth Bale.

Modric won the Golden Ball as the best player at this year's World Cup in Russia, where Croatia finished runners-up, and last month claimed FIFA's The Best men's player award, given to the world's top player; Bale scored twice in the Champions League final win over Liverpool.

France World Cup winners Paul Pogba, N'Golo Kante, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe, Raphael Varane, one of the Real Madrid contingent, and captain Hugo Lloris have also been nominated.

A panel of journalists select the winner of the Ballon d'Or, which was first established in 1956 and will this year feature a women's award for the first time, to be decided from a shortlist of 15 players.

The award merged with FIFA's World Player of the Year prize from 2010-15 to create the FIFA Ballon d'Or, but returned to France Football in 2016 while FIFA established The Best awards.

The magazine also unveiled the 10-man shortlist for the Kopa Award, given to the best under-21 player in the world; Ronaldo and Messi will be among the panelists deciding the winner.

Kylian Mbappe leads the names after a successful year with PSG and France, while Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold is also nominated.

United States and Borussia Dortmund winger Christian Pulisic is on the list, as well as AC Milan duo Patrick Cutrone and Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Lyon's Houssem Aouar, Groningen's Ritsu Doan, Red Bull Salzburg's Amadou Haidara, Roma's Justin Kluivert, and Santos' Rodrygo complete the list.

FIFA's The Best winner Marta, United States' Megan Rapinoe and Australia's Sam Kerr are are among the names on the inaugural Women's Ballon d'Or shortlist.

UEFA Women's Player of the Year Pernille Harder and U.S. international Lindsey Horan are both nominated, as well as England duo Lucy Bronze and Fran Kirby.

Lyon's Ada Hegerberg, Amandine Henry, Saki Kumagai, Dzsenifer Marozsan, Amel Majri and Wendy Renard are all nominated; Canada's Christine Sinclair and Netherlands' Lieke Martens also received nominations.

2018 Men's Ballon d'Or nominees:

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City and Argentina)

Alisson (Roma/Liverpool and Brazil)

Gareth Bale (Real Madrid and Wales)

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid and France)

Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint-Germain and Uruguay)

Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea/Real Madrid and Belgium)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Juventus and Portugal)

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City and Belgium)

Roberto Firmino (Liverpool and Brazil)

Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid and Uruguay)

Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid and France)

Eden Hazard (Chelsea and Belgium)

Isco (Real Madrid and Spain)

Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur and England)

N'Golo Kante (Chelsea and France)

Hugo Lloris (Tottenham and France)

Mario Mandzukic  (Juventus and Croatia)

Sadio Mane (Liverpool and Senegal)

Marcelo (Real Madrid and Brazil)

Kylian Mbappe (PSG and France)

Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina)

Luka Modric (Real Madrid and Croatia)

Neymar (PSG and Brazil)

Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid and Slovenia)

Paul Pogba (Manchester United and France)

Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona and Croatia)

Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid and Spain)

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt)

Luis Suarez (Barcelona and Uruguay)

Raphaël Varane (Real Madrid and France)

2018 Kopa Award nominees:

Houssem Aouar (Lyon and France)

Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool and England)

Patrick Cutrone (AC Milan and Italy)

Ritsu Doan (Groningen and Japan)

Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan and Italy)

Amadou Haidara (Red Bull Salzburg and Mali)

Justin Kluivert (Ajax/AS Roma and Netherlands)

Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain and France)

Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund and United States)

Rodrygo (Santos and Brazil)

2018 Women's Ballon d'Or nominees:

Lucy Bronze (Lyon and England)

Pernille Harder (Wolfsburg and Denmark)

Ada Hegerberg (Lyon and Norway)

Amandine Henry (Lyon and France)

Lindsay Horan (Portland Thorns and United States)

Sam Kerr (Chicago Red Stars and Australia)

Fran Kirby (Chelsea and England)

Saki Kumagai (Lyon and Japan)

Dzsenifer Marozsan (Lyon and Germany)

Amel Majri (Lyon and France)

Marta (Orlando Pride and Brazil)

Lieke Martens (Barcelona and Netherlands)

Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign and United States)

Wendie Renard (Lyon and France)

Christine Sinclair (Portland Thorns and Canada)

Reuters was used in this report.

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