Ruben Dias, Phil Foden, Erling Haaland and Rodrigo have all been included on the 30-player shortlist for what is considered the most prestigious individual award in world football.
Pep Guardiola is also one of six nominees for the Men’s Coach of the Year which will be awarded for the first time.
City have again been nominated for the Club of the Year award which we have won for the past two years.
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Summer signing Savinho has also been shortlisted for the Kopa Trophy – the award for the best player aged under 21.
Awarded by French magazine France Football, the winners in each category will be announced at a ceremony taking place at Theatre du Chatelet in Paris on Monday 28 October.
Ruben Dias
City defenders love their jobs just as much as our playmakers enjoy creating chances and the strikers like finishing them.
Dias is one of those that celebrates tackles and blocks like they’re winning moments and is quick to praise those in his backline that do the same.
Our defensive strength was critical to a fourth successive Premier League as we conceded just six goals in the last nine matches that we won to clinch the title.
The 27-year-old is a serial winner and has only known Premier League glory in his four years at the Club and has been a consistently strong performer as he closes in on his 200th appearance for City.
Phil Foden
There’s not much that footballers, fans, pundits and writers agree on, but they did come to a consensus on last season’s best player in the Premier League.
The City midfielder picked up every individual honour winning the Premier League Player of the Year, the Football Writer’s Association Footballer of the Year, PFA Players’ Player of the Year and City’s Etihad Player of the Season.
It’s a phenomenal haul after a season where Foden scored 27 times from 53 appearances and helped us to three major trophies including the European Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
Our Academy are rightly proud of all his remarkable achievements and to be on the Ballon d’Or shortlist is another huge honour for the Stockport-born City fan.
Erling Haaland
Despite re-writing the record books, scoring 52 goals and winning the Treble, Haaland was second in the Ballon d’Or last year behind Lionel Messi.
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Haaland backed up a phenomenal debut campaign at City by finishing as the Premier League’s top scorer last season and winning the title again despite missing three months through injury.
He has four hat-tricks in 2024, two in his last two games, as well as five goals in an FA Cup victory at Premier League rivals Luton Town.
Among a list of startling statistics, no Premier League team has been able to stop him scoring against them with Ipswich already joining that illustrious list.
Rodrigo
Ballon d’Or awards generally go to strikers and attackers but the Spaniard cannot be ignored for his huge influence at the base of midfield.
Rodri is probably the best defensive midfielder in the world due to his ability to both break up opponents’ attacks and keep the rhythm of our own possession.
The 28-year-old has been outstanding for a number of seasons and has an ability to score important goals, famously scoring the winner of the 2023 Champions League final.
Incredibly, he went 50 games for City last season without tasting defeat as we won the Premier League and then went on to help Spain win the European Championship.
Everyone at Manchester City would like to congratulate our players on their nominations.
The full men’s Ballon d’Or shortlist is:
Jude Bellingham – Real Madrid
Hakan Calhanoglu – Inter
Dani Carvajal – Real Madrid
Ruben Dias – City
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Artem Dovbik – Roma
Phil Foden – City
Alejandro Grimaldo – Bayer Leverkusen
Erling Haaland – City
Mats Hummels – Roma
Harry Kane – Bayern Munich
Toni Kroos – Real Madrid
Ademola Lookman – Atalanta
Emiliano Martinez – Aston Villa
Lautaro Martinez – Inter
Kylian Mbappe – Real Madrid
Martin Odegaard – Arsenal
Dani Olmo – Barcelona
Cole Palmer – Chelsea
Declan Rice- Arsenal
Rodrigo – City
Antonio Rudiger – Real Madrid
Bukayo Saka – Arsenal
William Saliba – Arsenal
Federico Valverde – Real Madrid
Vinicius Jr – Real Madrid
Vitinha – PSG
Nicolas Williams – Athletic Bilbao
Florian Wirtz – Bayer Leverkusen
Granit Xhaka – Bayer Leverkusen
Lamine Yamal – Barcelona
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