{"id":14992,"date":"2018-10-09T05:51:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T05:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/?p=14992"},"modified":"2018-10-09T08:20:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T08:20:47","slug":"2018-ballon-d-or-shortlist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/2018-ballon-d-or-shortlist\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 Ballon d\u2019Or: Messi, Neymar, Mbappe In 30-Man Shortlist"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p>Lionel Messi, Neymar and World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe are among the final players named on the 30-man Ballon d\u2019Or shortlist.<\/p>\n<p>They are joined by Mbappe\u2019s France team-mates Hugo Lloris, Paul Pogba and Raphael Varane, as well as Croatia star Luka Modric, who won the World Cup Golden Ball.<\/p>\n<p>Modric\u2019s international team-mates Mario Mandzukic and Ivan Rakitic are also on the shortlist, as are Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.<\/p>\n<p>Completing the final 15 nominees for France Football\u2019s prize are Real Madrid\u2019s Marcelo and Sergio Ramos, Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak and Barcelona forward Luis Suarez.<\/p>\n<p>Mbappe scored 21 goals for Paris Saint-Germain last season before starring in France\u2019s triumphant Russia 2018 campaign, netting three times on their way to the final and then again in the 4-2 win over Croatia that sealed their second World Cup triumph.<\/p>\n<p>The teenager is also on the 10-player shortlist for the inaugural Kopa Trophy, a new prize for the best player under 21, which is judged by stars including Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.<\/p>\n<p>Messi and Neymar did not enjoy World Cups as memorable as Mbappe\u2019s, but they were instrumental in Barcelona and PSG\u2019s respective title wins.<\/p>\n<p>Other players vying for the 2018 Ballon d\u2019Or include last year\u2019s winner Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Harry Kane, Eden Hazard and Antoine Griezmann.<\/p>\n<p>Sourced From: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.completesportsnigeria.com\/2018-ballon-dor-messi-neymar-mbappe-in-30-man-shortlist\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Complete Sports Nigeria<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Messi, Neymar and World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe are among the final players named on the 30-man Ballon d\u2019Or shortlist. They are joined by Mbappe\u2019s France team-mates Hugo Lloris, Paul Pogba and Raphael Varane, as well as Croatia star Luka Modric, who won the World Cup Golden Ball. Modric\u2019s international team-mates Mario Mandzukic and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9508,11829],"tags":[11827,11828,11133,1028,5842],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}