How does Ballon d'Or voting work? Process to select award winner explained

Lionel Messi is expected to win a record eighth Ballon d’Or at a lavish ceremony in Paris.

The 35-year-old is a huge favourite thanks to guiding Argentina to a career-defining World Cup win in Qatar. But it is not a straightforward process and he faces competition from Manchester City ’s Erling Haaland, who broke a host of goalscoring records last season.

Man City midfielder Rodri, who scored the winning goal for Pep Guardiola ’s team in the Champions League final, is also in contention. And that is before considering Kylian Mbappe, Messi’s former Paris Saint-Germain team-mate who scored a hat-trick for France in that stunning Doha final defeat.

Here is a guide to how the votes are counted and the decision-makers involved.

Who votes?

A jury of 100 journalists were appointed to a jury and presented with a shortlist of 30 players including all the aforementioned plus England stars Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham.

The journalists are picked based on FIFA’s rankings, meaning one journalist from each of the top 100 ranked nations get a vote. This can often be confused with the voting process for FIFA’s own award, The Best, which is decided by the managers and captains of national teams.

How are votes counted?

It’s all, surprisingly, very simple. Each journalist ranks their top five players with the first-choice getting six points, second awarded four, third three, fourth two and fifth one. Whoever gets the most points wins.

So we’ll find out who finishes second and third?

And the rest. A full ranking will be released shortly after the winner is crowned. Last year Karim Benzema (549 points), then of Real Madrid, was miles ahead of second-placed Sadio Mane (193) and Kevin De Bruyne (175) in third. Harry Kane, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Phil Foden finished 21st and joint-22nd. Messi, meanwhile, was not even nominated for the first time since 2005 but his winning margin tonight is expected to be a Benzema-sized landslide.

Is it the same for the women’s award?

Mostly. Thirty players have been shortlisted - including English quartet Mary Earps, Millie Bright, Rachel Daly and Georgia Stanway, who will all miss the award owing to the Nations League game away to Belgium on Tuesday night.

The points system is the same too. But only 50 journalists, picked again on FIFA rankings, have voted.