The World Football Governing Body, FIFA, has unveiled its 14-player shortlist for The Best Men’s Player award for 2022, with the 2022 World Cup Winner, Lionel Messi, leading the pack.

The recent Al-Nassr signing and former Manchester United and Real Madrid star, Christiano Ronaldo, did not feature in the list of nominees which takes a look back at the best performers from the previous calendar year.

FIFA said this year’s award will be handed out based on performances from the start of the 2021/22 season up until the conclusion of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

After leading Argentina to glory in Qatar, Lionel is unsurprisingly the headline name on the shortlist.

The favourite who finished second in last year’s award to Robert Lewandowski, who has also been nominated again, won the award in 2015 after a successful season with Barcelona.

Messi is not the only member of Argentina’s squad which won the World Cup on the nomination list, Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez also received a nomination.

The forward is joined on the shortlist by club-mates Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland.

The only other player nominated currently playing his club football in England is Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, though former teammate Sadio Mane, now of Bayern Munich, is too shortlisted.

In addition to Messi, PSG stars Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Achraf Hakimi have all been rewarded with nominations.

European champions Real Madrid have three players on the shortlist, with Luka Modric, Vinicius Junior, and Ballon d’Or holder Karim Benzema making the cut.

Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder Jude Bellingham is the youngest player on the shortlist at 19 years of age.

Voting for the award is split into four groups – media representatives, national team coaches, national team captains, and fan votes, with each group having 25% of the overall vote.

 

See the full list of nominees

 

Julian Alvarez

 

Jude Bellingham

 

Karim Benzema

 

Kevin De Bruyne

 

Erling Haaland

 

Achraf Hakimi

 

Robert Lewandowski

 

Sadio Mane

 

Kylian Mbappe

 

Lionel Messi

 

Luka Modric

 

Neymar

 

Mohamed Salah

 

Vinicius Junior