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Mark Doyle

Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Marcus Rashford and the 2023 Ballon d'Or shortlist's biggest snubs

OpinionC. RonaldoFEATURESNeymarAl Nassr FCM. RashfordCasemiroJ. GrealishJ. StonesManchester CityManchester UnitedParis Saint-GermainBarcelonaM. ter StegenF. DimarcoInter

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

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.

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