Virgil van Dijk is one of six Liverpool players to be named alongside Cristiano Ronaldo on the 30-man shortlist for the 2019 Ballon d’Or.
Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Georginio Wijnaldum and Alisson have also been chosen from the Reds.
The reveal is ongoing with the full list expected to be completed at around 20:00 BST.
Lionel Messi is expected to be included among the nominees yet to be announced.
Follow the reveal of the Ballon d’Or shortlist
Reds dominate players from one club
Champions League winners Liverpool have by far the most players on the list from one club.
From the Premier League, Manchester City and Tottenham have two, with Sergio Aguero and Bernardo Silva from the Premier League title holders and Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min from Spurs.
Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is also on the list.
Elsewhere, three clubs have two players on the list – Ajax (Dusan Tadic and Donny van de Beek), Barcelona (Frenkie de Jong and Marc-Andre ter Stegen) and Juventus (Ronaldo and Matthijs de Ligt).
Bayern Munich (Robert Lewandowski), Paris St-Germain (Kylian Mbappe) and Real Madrid (Karim Benzema) all have one player each nominated.
The Ballon d’Or winner will be named in Paris on 2 December.
Luka Modric won in 2018 to end the seven-year dominance of the award by Messi and Ronaldo.
Van Dijk is among then favourites to win this year’s award after being named Uefa Player of the Year in August.
A version of the Ballon d’Or has been awarded by France Football magazine since 1956 but was merged with Fifa’s World Footballer of the Year award from 2010 to 2015.
However, Fifa ended their association with the Ballon d’Or the following year to set up their own – the Best Fifa Player award.
In September, Lionel Messi won that award in the fourth edition of the Best Fifa Football Awards, set up after football’s world governing body ended its association with the Ballon d’Or.
Meanwhile, Uefa’s Player of the Year award has been going since 1998 and was previously called Uefa Club Footballer of the Year (1998-2010) and Uefa Best Player in Europe (2011-16).
List of nominees revealed so far
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Roberto Firmino (Liverpool)
Alisson (Liverpool)
Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Georginio Wijnaldum (Liverpool)
Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona)
Hugo Lloris (Tottenham)
Dusan Tadic (Ajax)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)
Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain)
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
Donny van de Beek (Ajax)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)
Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona)
Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
You might also like – Man Utd 1-1 Liverpool
Adam Lallana came off the bench to rescue a point for Liverpool as their winning run was ended by Manchester United at Old Trafford
VAR made the headlines again as Marcus Rashford’s controversial strike looked to have handed Man Utd a crucial win before Lallana struck in the 85th minute. read more
Source – BBC
