The Ballon d'Or shortlist the last time Cristiano Ronaldo wasn't nominated

  • Cristiano Ronaldo was nominated for 19 years in a row
  • Former Real Madrid and Man Utd forward is a five-time Ballon d'Or winner
  • Will not be involved in 2023 after missing out on a nomination
Ronaldo has been a Ballon d'Or contender for a very long time
Ronaldo has been a Ballon d'Or contender for a very long time / Etsuo Hara/GettyImages
facebooktwitterreddit

The Ballon d'Or is the biggest individual award in football and the shortlist causes quite a stir each year, arguably more so than the announcement of the winners.

In the men's Ballon d'Or, two names have been dominant for a very long time. Even when not winning it, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have always been firmly in the conversation over the past 20 years.

For the first time since 2003, though, Ronaldo has not made the list of male nominees. Having moved to Al Nassr in January, Ronaldo isn't in the European spotlight quite so much and wasn't at his best at Manchester United before the move happened.

2003 was a very long time ago in football terms, so here are the players he was up against when he received his first nomination for the Ballon d'Or.


When was Cristiano Ronaldo first nominated for the Ballon d'Or?

Ronaldo had recently moved from Sporting CP to Manchester United when he was first nominated for a Ballon d'Or award in 2004. He was a tricky young winger who was clearly a raw but massive talent.

He received some votes to win the Ballon d'Or that year, getting one second-place vote, a third-place vote and two fourth-place votes. That meant he was joint-12th in the final ranking with Liverpool's Milan Barros. Andriy Shevchenko won the Ballon d'Or that year with two more votes than Deco while Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry and Theodoros Zagorakis rounded out the top five.


2003 Ballon d'Or nominees

There were 50 nominees for the 2003 Ballon d'Or before Ronaldo was regarded as one of the best players in the world. 26 of them received votes to win the award while the remaining 24 couldn't manage a vote between them.


Non-voted players

Player

Nationality

Club(s)

Pablo Aimar

Argentina

Valencia

Sol Campbell

England

Arsenal

Iker Casillas

Spain

Real Madrid

Christian Chivu

Romania

Ajax and Roma

Samuel Eto'o

Cameroon

Mallorca

Luis Figo

Portugal

Real Madrid

Giovane Elber

Brazil

Bayern Munich and Lyon

Ludovic Giuly

France

Monaco

Oliver Kahn

Germany

Bayern Munich

Patrick Kluivert

Netherlands

Barcelona

Darko Kovacevic

Serbia and Montenegro

Real Sociedad

Claude Makelele

France

Real Madrid and Chelsea

Michael Owen

England

Liverpool

Pauleta

Portugal

Bordeaux and PSG

Robert Pires

France

Arsenal

Michel Salgado

Spain

Real Madrid

Paul Scholes

England

Manchester United

Lillian Thuram

France

Juventus

Hatem Trabelsi

Tunisia

Ajax

David Trezeguet

France

Juventus

Patrick Viera

France

Arsenal

Christian Vieri

Italy

Inter

Sylvain Wiltord

France

Arsenal

Gianluca Zambrotta

Italy

Juventus


In terms of those who were really in with a chance of winning the award, there were some huge names that still carry a lot of weight and nostalgia for football fans.

The likes of David Beckham, Gianluigi Buffon, Zinedine Zidane and Paolo Maldini were all in the frame to scoop the award. There were also some more minor names who received votes such as Francesco Toldo, Jan Koller and Nihat Kahveci.

Below is the list of vote receivers in winning order from the 2003 Ballon d'Or.


Voted-for players

Player

Nationality

Club(s)

Total score

Pavel Nedved

Czech Republic

Juventus

190

Thierry Henry

France

Arsenal

128

Paolo Maldini

Italy

AC Milan

123

Andriy Shevchenko

Ukraine

Milan

67

Zinedine Zidane

France

Real Madrid

64

Ruud van Nistelrooy

Netherlands

Manchester United

61

Raul

Spain

Real Madrid

32

Roberto Carlos

Brazil

Real Madrid

27

Gianluigi Buffon

Italy

Juventus

19

David Beckham

England

Manchester United and Real Madrid

17

Ronaldo

Brazil

Real Madrid

11

Henrik Larsson

Sweden

Celtic

6

Alessandro Del Piero

Italy

Juventus

4

Dida

Brazil

AC Milan

4

Roy Makaay

Netherlands

Netherlands

4

Alessandro Nesta

Italy

AC Milan

4

Deco

Portugal

Porto

4

Nihat Kahveci

Turkey

Real Sociedad

3

Francesco Totti

Italy

Roma

3

Michael Ballack

Germany

Bayern Munich

2

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Sweden

Ajax

2

Filippo Inzaghi

Italy

AC Milan

1

Jan Koller

Czech Republic

Borussia Dortmund

1

Adrian Mutu

Romania

Parma and Chelsea

1

Ronaldinho

Brazil

PSG and Barcelona

1

Francesco Toldo

Italy

Inter

1


2023 Ballon d'Or nominees

Ronaldo will perhaps be paying a bit less attention to things this time as he has not been nominated at the 2023 Ballon d'Or awards. Some great players have made the shortlist and whether the Al Nassr forward would have deserved to make the cut had he been included is up for debate.

  • Julian Alvarez - Manchester City/Argentina
  • Nicolo Barella - Inter/Italy
  • Jude Bellingham - Borussia Dortmund/Real Madrid/England
  • Karim Benzema - Real Madrid/Al Ittihad/France
  • Yassine Bounou - Sevilla/Al Hilal/Morocco
  • Kevin De Bruyne - Manchester City/Belgium
  • Ruben Dias - Manchester City/Portugal
  • Antoine Griezmann - Atletico Madrid/France
  • Ilkay Gundgan - Manchester City/Barcelona/Germany
  • Josko Gvardiol - RB Leipzig/Manchester City/Croatia
  • Erling Haaland - Manchester City/Norway
  • Harry Kane - Tottenham/Bayern Munich/England
  • Randal Kolo Muani - Eintracht Frankfurt/PSG/France
  • Khvicha Kvaratskhelia - Napoli/Georgia
  • Robert Lewandowski - Barcelona/Poland
  • Emiliano Martinez - Aston Villa/Argentina
  • Lautaro Martinez - Inter/Argentina
  • Kylian Mbappe - PSG/France
  • Lionel Messi - PSG/Inter Miami/Argentina
  • Kim Min-jae - Napoli/Bayern Munich/South Korea
  • Luka Modric - Real Madrid/Croatia
  • Jamal Musiala - Bayern Munich/Germany
  • Martin Odegaard - Arsenal/Norway
  • Andre Onana - Inter/Manchester United/Cameroon
  • Victor Osimhen - Napoli/Nigeria
  • Rodri - Manchester City/Spain
  • Bukayo Saka - Arsenal/England
  • Mohamed Salah - Liverpool/Egypt
  • Bernardo Silva - Manchester City/Portugal
  • Vinicius Junior - Real Madrid/Brazil

READ MORE ON THE 2023 BALLON D'OR NOMINATIONS AND PREDICTED RANKINGS

manual