Harry Kane & Hugo Lloris make Ballon d’Or shortlist

The Ballon d’Or may no longer be formally affiliated with FIFA anymore, having reverted back to sport publication France Football, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still incredibly prestigious. World football may fixate on FIFA’s The Best awards, but winning the Ballon d’Or still means something, and will for a very long time.

Therefore, it’s a big deal when a Tottenham Hotspur player gets nominated for the award, as Harry Kane did today. Kane is one of 30 players on a “shortlist” released by France Football (though as of yet only 15 have been released to the public), and already he’s got a lot of very distinguished company. However, for the first time in what seems like ages, while Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will both (of course) be on the list, neither are favorites to win the award this year. That’s probably Luka Modric — who isn’t (yet) on the list, but I’m sure you can make an argument for a number of different players this year. It does seem to be a bit more open than the past, y’know, decade.

Here’s the full list of the 15 shortlisted players that have been announced thus far. There are more to come. The list will be winnowed down by the France Football editorial board before being decided by a panel of football journalists.

EDIT: Hey, more great news — it turns out Hugo Lloris has also been nominated!

Ballon d’Or Shortlist (as of now)

• Sergio Aguero
• Alisson
• Gareth Bale
• Karim Benzema
• Edinson Cavani
• Thibaut Courtois
• Cristiano Ronaldo
• Kevin De Bruyne
• Roberto Firmino
• Diego Godin
• Antoine Griezmann
• Eden Hazard
• Isco
• Harry Kane
• N’Golo Kante
• Hugo Lloris
• Mario Madzukic
• Sadio Mane
• Marcelo
• Kylian Mbappe