BUENOS AIRES – Latin America has placed eight professional soccer players in the list of 30 candidates for the 2017 Golden Ball.
In addition to Argentine’s Lionel Messi playing for Spanish pro club Barcelona, appear in the list his compatriot Paulo Dybala, Uruguayans Edinson Cavani and Luis Suárez; Colombian Radamel Falcao and Brazilians Marcelo Vieira, Philippe Coutinho and Neymar da Silva.
Talking about clubs, Spanish Real Madrid, current champion of Europe, managed to locate seven of its players in the list, since in addition to Marcelo, there are the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, Spanish Isco Alarcón and Sergio Ramos; Frenchman Karim Benzema, Croatian Luka Modric and German Toni Kroos.
As for the countries, France is most represented by four elements: Benzema, Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann and N’Golo Kanté, since Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang was born in this European nation, but represents Gabon.
As the French magazine ‘France Football’ revealed today, there are 17 innovations in the whole list, compared to the payroll of 2016, when Portuguese Ronaldo won.
It is hoped that the Portuguese forward playing for Real Madrid should add his fifth coronation, after achieving it in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016, and this way, to tie with Messi (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015).
NOMINATED PLAYERS TO THE 2017 GOLDEN BALL
Lionel Messi/Barcelona-Argentina
Neymar gives Miscellany / Paris SG-Brazil
Paulo Dybala/Juventus-Argentina
Marcelo Vieira / Real Madrid – Brazil
Luis Suárez/Barcelona-Uruguay
Philippe Coutinho/Liverpool-Brazil
Radamel Falcao/Mónaco-Colombia
Edinson Cavani/París SG-Uruguay
Luka Modric/Real Madrid Croatia
N’Golo Kanté/Chelsea-France
Sergio Ramos / Real Madrid – Spain
Jan Oblak/Atlético of Madrid – Slovenia
Dries Mertens/Nápoles-Bélgium
Kevin de Bruyne/Mánchester City-Belgium
Robert Lewandowski/Bayern Múnich Poland
David de Gea/Mánchester United-Spain
Harry Kane/Tottenham-UK
Edin Dzeko/Roma-Bosnia
Antoine Griezmann/Atlético of Madrid – France
Toni Kroos/Real Madrid Germany
Gianluigi Buffon/Juventus-Italy
Sadio Mané/Liverpool-Senegal
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang/Borussia Dortmund Gabón
Mats Hummels/Bayern Munich – Germany
Karim Benzema/Real Madrid France
Cristiano Ronaldo/Real Madrid Portugal
Eden Hazard/Chelsea-Bélgium
Leonardo Bonucci/Milan-Italy
Isco/Real Madrid – Spain
Kylian Mbappé/París SG-France
