5 days ago
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Barcelona - and Yamal - arrive
Barcelona are in town with hopes of picking up an award or two.
Yamal may be their best hope from the men's side of things, but he does face a fight to topple Ousmane Dembele.
Still, the teenage sensation is here, and looks ready!
Five Lionesses up for women's award
After the sensational achievement of retaining their Euros trophy, five of Sarina Wiegman's team are shortlisted for the women's Ballon d'Or award.
They are:
- Leah Williamson
- Lucy Bronze
- Chloe Kelly
- Alessia Russo
- Hannah Hampton
We are expecting them all to do reasonably well - and all have officially made the top 10. Russo and Bronze could even compete for the top prize...
Favourites to win men's Ballon d'Or
Here are the favourites to win the men's award tonight, courtesy of our friends at Betfair:
- Ousmane Dembele - 2/7
- Lamine Yamal - 2/1
- Raphinha - 16/1
- Mohamed Salah - 20/1
- Vitinha - 20/1
- Kylian Mbappe - 22/1
- Gianluigi Donnarumma - 33/1
Seems a foregone conclusion... right?
Breaking:Bellingham finishes 23rd
Not a great ranking for Jude Bellingham, who finishes 23rd in this year's voting. That's down from third last year.
Three nominations for him. I suppose he didn't have quite a good a season - coming second in LaLiga and runner up in the Euros with England, while Madrid were nowhere near it in the Champions League.
Elsewhere, Fabian Ruiz has come 24th and Alexis Mac Allister 22nd.
First men's rankings revealed
The countdown has already started for the men's award! Blimey!
30th is Michael Olise with one nomination...
29th is Florian Wirtz, 28th Virgil van Dijk, 27th Declan Rice, 26th Erling Haaland.
25th has just come in too - and it's Inter's Denzel Dumfries.
Some real Premier League representation there - past and present. But rough from Haaland - who came fifth last year!
Ballon d'Or winner to be revealed tonight!
Hello everyone! How are we?
Thanks for joing us tonight for Daily Mail Sport's live blog for the Ballon d'Or. Arguably the biggest prizes in football from an awards point of view will be won tonight.
We will be bringing you all the latest news and updates from the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France, as the worlds top stars - and maybe a few celebrities - take their seats fo the annual awards evening.
The ceremony itself will get underway at around 8pm UK time - but we have plenty to get through before then!
