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❌ Ballon d'Or snubs: who deserved a place among the 30 finalists 🤯

The list of 30 candidates for the Ballon d'Or has been made official (here is the list) and as always, the list of those excluded has sparked debate.

*This list does not include those important players who, however, have had a year below expectations.

The two PSG exclusions: Marquinhos and Barcola

who deserved a place among the 30 finalists 🤯

Of the 30 finalists, 9 players are from PSG, but this list is missing its captain: Marquinhos.

The linchpin of the defense and the one who lifted the Cup in the sky of Munich, a very strange absence considering that Marquinhos has only missed one Champions League match: the first leg of the quarter-finals against Aston Villa.

Barcola's exclusion is also heavy: 3 goals in the Champions League (including one in the final), 14 in the league (with 11 assists) and a brace in the French Cup final against Stade Reims.

The attackers: Isak and Julian Alvarez

Two attackers who did very well during the last season: Isak and Julian Alvarez led the seasons of Newcastle and Atletico Madrid.

Isak scored 27 goals this season, came 2nd in the Premier League top scorers (better than Haaland) and established himself among the top in his role. For this reason, Newcastle has already rejected about 140M euros for him: a value not enough to enter the Ballon d'Or list.

Julian Alvarez in his first year at Atletico Madrid immediately established himself: 7 goals in 10 Champions League matches, 5 in the Copa del Rey and a whopping 17 in the league. His absence from this list can only be justified with the double-touch during the penalty cancelled in the round of 16 against Real Madrid (an event that led to a rule change).

The workers: Kimmich, Valverde, TAA and Caicedo

Federico Valverde, despite Real Madrid's not positive year, has always churned out monstrous performances, scoring 6 goals in the league while missing the goal in the Champions League. However, Valverde cannot be excluded from the list of the best players of last season.

At the same time, Joshua Kimmich played his usual season of intelligence, substance and assist production: there were more than 10 winning passes in his season. The return to Bundesliga victory was not enough, probably due to Bayern's Champions League elimination against Inter.

Alexander-Arnold was the starting full-back and one of the key men of the team that won the Premier League: he scored 3 goals and made more assists than last year. Not surprisingly, Real Madrid bought him after a long courtship.

The revival of Chelsea, which won the Conference League and the Club World Cup, comes - first and foremost - from the mind of Enzo Maresca and immediately after from the performances of Caicedo. His season is hard to quantify in numbers (6 assists and 2 goals) but the performances would have deserved more recognition, given also the presence in the ranking of an otherwise excellent Declan Rice.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.