KEVIN De Bruyne of Manchester City and David De Gea of Manchester United were recently named in the 30-man shortlist for the prestigious Ballon D’or.

De Bruyne and De Gea are two of the seven Premier League players to be nominated, Liverpool pair Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mané were also nominated for the prestigious award.

Chelsea duo Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kanté and Tottenham’s England star Harry Kane were the final Premier league based players selected.

The Ballon D’or is an annual award presented by French magazine France Football created in 1956 and is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious awards a football player can win, despite its official partnership with FIFA ending in 2015.

Welshman Gareth Bale, who’s sixth placed finish last year made him the highest ranked Brit since Wayne Rooney came fifth in the 2011 award, did not make the list for this year’s award.

David Mooney, a producer of Blue Moon Podcast said: “Kevin De Bruyne really deserves his nomination for the Ballon D’or. In all of City’s attacking talent, he often gets overlooked as people focus on the skills and creativity brought by David Silva or Sergio Aguero. However, the Belgian has been superb for Pep Guardiola since the turn of the year. He’s created a lot of the chances that City have fashioned and has been much more influential since the manager moved him slightly deeper to the centre of midfield. It’s a richly deserved nomination.”

Mooney went on to question the selection process of the panel for snubbing Manchester City’s talismanic midfielder David Silva.

I’m surprised, though, that David Silva has yet to be nominated for the award in all of his time at City. Many of the fans would put him as the club’s best ever player and he’s been an inspiration since he arrived in 2010. Despite consistent performances in those seven years, he’s never had the recognition he deserved from the Ballon D’or selectors.”

The Ballon D’or has been won by either Lionel Messi (five wins) or Cristiano Ronaldo (four wins) every year since 2007 and both of them will be hoping to pick up the award again this year following yet another stellar season for both players.

Nominees for the 2017 award:

  • David De Gea (Man United/Spain)
  • Kevin De Bruyne (Man City/Belgium
  • Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool/Brazil)
  • Sadio Mane (Liverpool/Senegal)
  • Eden Hazard (Chelsea/Belgium)
  • N’Golo Kante (Chelsea/France)
  • Harry Kane (Tottenham/England)
  • Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)
  • Luis Suarez (Barcelona/Uruguay)
  • Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)
  • Luka Modric (Real Madrid/Croatia)
  • Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid/Spain)

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