Cristiano Ronaldo to make 1st Ballon d’Or appearance since 2017 as former Real Madrid teammate becomes favourite to win

Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to be present at the Ballon d’or ceremony on Monday. It will be his first ever appearance at the event since 2017, the last time Ronaldo had won the elusive trophy, to go level with Lionel Messi before the Argentine extended his supremacy with wins in 2019 and 2021. But Ronaldo has a special reason behind his return to Ballon d’Or event this year.

Ronaldo was part of the Ballon d’Or nomination list in the consecutive years but was not present at the ceremony in Paris. He had finished second behind Luka Modric in 2018, third in 2019 and sixth in 2021. Ronaldo earned a nomination this year as well, after scoring 24 goals for Manchester United last season, but Portuguese is not among the favourites to win the trophy. However, Ronaldo will not be present this time around for himself.

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It has been reported that Ronaldo will be there to support his former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema, who, as it stands, is the hot favourite to claim the trophy after scoring 44 goals in 46 games last season as Real Madrid claimed success in La Liga and Champions League. Ronaldo and Benzema played together for Real Madrid for nine years before the former departed to join his former club Manchester United.

Check out the full list of nominees below:

Men’s Ballon d’Or award nominees: Thibaut Courtois, Rafael Leao, Christopher Nkunku, Mohamed Salah, Joshua Kimmich, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Vinicius Junior, Bernardo Silva, Luis Diaz, Robert Lewandowski, Riyad Mahrez, Casemiro, Son Heung-min, Fabinho, Karim Benzema, Mike Maignan, Harry Kane, Darwin Nunez, Phil Foden, Sadio Mane, Sébastien Haller, Luka Modric, Antonio Rudiger, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kevin De Bruyne, Dusan Vlahovic, Virgil van Dijk, João Cancelo, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland