The 11 craziest Ballon d’Or nomination snubs in history: Kane, Ozil…

The 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony is soon upon us, and there is likely to be a new winner, with neither of serial winners Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo nominated, nor last year’s winner Rodri.

However, amid the state of their careers, with the first pair ageing and the latter injured for much of the last year.

But in previous years, there have certainly been instances where players have been hard done by in their omissions from the nominations.

Here, we have looked into 11 of those players.

Javi Moreno – 2001

In 2001 the Ballon d’Or award was won by Michael Owen, with a hat-trick on the international stage for England believed to have influenced voting, though at club level, Owen only scored 16 Premier League goals for Liverpool that season.

In the same campaign, Alaves striker Moreno bagged 22 goals, alongside five assists. If Owen’s returns were enough to win the award, such goalscoring feats in a 10th-placed LaLiga side should have led to at least a nomination.

Claudio Pizarro – 2001

In the same year, scored 19 goals in the Bundesliga, alongside seven assists, and scored four goals in five UEFA Cup games.

His returns led to a transfer to Bayern Munich, but were not enough for a Ballon d’Or nomination.

Robinho – 2008

At the time of his transfer to Manchester City in 2008, Robinho’s was the British transfer record – £32.5million.

He had just come off the back of a season in which he scored 11 goals and assisted eight more in LaLiga for Real Madrid, and prior to December in the 2008/09 season, the Brazilian scored eight goals – including a hat-trick – and assisted two in the Premier League.

However, that was not enough for a Ballon d’Or nomination for the year.

Edwin van der Sar – 2009

The Ballon d’Or is not usually the kindest to goalkeepers, with Lev Yashin the only player in the position to ever win it.

In 2009, Van der Sar had perhaps the best period of his career, keeping 21 clean sheets in the 2008-09 season, including 14 in a row.

However, Iker Casillas and Julio Cesar were the only goalkeepers to be nominated for the 2009 award.

Diego Milito – 2010

In 2009-10, Milito had one of the best goalscoring years of his career, notching 22 times in the Serie A, along with five assists, as well as six goals and three assists in 11 Champions League games.

Not only that, but he was the ultimate big game player, with the winner in the Coppa Italia final, both goals in the Champions League final and the Scudetto-clinching goal at Siena on the final weekend. Huge moments like that would have you in the running to win the award nowadays.

At the time, his Inter Milan manager, Rafa Benitez, said: “It’s strange, really strange.”

“He even won the trophy as the best player in the Champions League. We’re all surprised.”

Marco Reus – 2013

Reus had a phenomenal start to life at Borussia Dortmund, with 14 goals and 11 assists in the Bundesliga in 2012/13, as well as four goals and four assists on the way to the Champions League final.

Reus followed up with 12 goal contributions in the Bundesliga in the first half of the next season, but was not nominated for the Ballon d’Or off the back of his good form.

Mats Hummels – 2014

Hummels came back from missing around half of the 2013/14 season with Dortmund to make Germany’s World Cup squad.

The centre-back played all but one game in Germany’s triumph. He missed the round of 16 through illness, but came back into the side for the next game, scoring the only goal against France to push his side on.

After the 7-1 demolition job against Brazil, Hummels played all 120 minutes in the final against Argentina, helping his side to World Cup triumph.

Franck Ribery – 2014

In just 22 Bundesliga games in 2014, Ribery scored 10 goals and provided 12 assists as Bayern Munich won the title by 19 points.

They also reached the Champions League semi-finals, Ribery scoring three goals and assisting two more. He also scored in the Club World Cup semi-final – a competition Bayern won.

But injuries surely counted against him, as while it looked he could continue his form all season, whether that would have been the case was never answered, and Ribery was omitted from the nominations.

Harry Kane – 2015

There have not been many better full debut seasons from an English academy player than Harry Kane’s. He had played 10 Premier League games in 2014-15, and was then given 34 the following season.

Kane bagged 21 league goals along with five assists, along with three League Cup goals and five in the Europa League. In the first half of the next season, the Tottenham striker had a run of four Premier League games in which he scored seven goals.

But he would have to wait for his first Ballon d’Or nomination.

Mesut Ozil – 2016

Ozil’s 2015-16 season was one of the best for any Premier League player in history in terms of assists. The 19 goals he provided for team-mates is the joint-highest tally anybody has ever produced. Alongside that, Ozil notched six goals.

He continued in great form at the beginning of the next season, especially in the Champions League, where he had four goals and two assists – including a hat-trick and an assist in one game – before December.

But the phenomenal returns were not enough to see him nominated for the Ballon d’Or.

Philippe Coutinho – 2016

In total in 2015-16, Coutinho had 12 club goals and seven assists to his name, including two goals and two assists in the Europa League.

He also began the next season with a brace against Arsenal – two out of his 10 goal contributions in the Premier League before December.

But he missed parts of both of those seasons through injury, and that might have counted against him.

READ NEXT: Man Utd have signed the wrong striker again – & we have the conclusive evidence

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to make the Ballon d’Or top three in the 2020s?