France Football will announce a 30-man Ballon d'Or shortlist today (18:00 CET) with Virgil van Dijk, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo among the favourites for the top gong.
The most coveted individual prize in football - won last year by Real Madrid star Luka Modric - is again up for grabs. Modric was the first player in a decade to break the Mess-Ronaldo duopoly, and Van Dijk is the man tipped to beat them to the prize this year.
Live Updates
When is the 2019 Ballon d'Or?
France Football have not confirmed the date, or venue, for this year's ceremony, but early December is the best bet.
When is the shortlist revealed?
France Football will announce a 30-man shortlist UTC 2019/10/21 16:00
The 2019 Ballon d'Or contenders
Cristiano Ronaldo
After nine years at Real Madrid, Ronaldo moved to Juventus last summer in a deal worth £100million looking for a new challenge at the age of 33 and was named Serie A's most valuable player 10 months later after winning the Scudetto.
Ronaldo finished as club's top scorer in every domestic competition he competed in before leading Portugal to Uefa Nations League glory over the summer.
The forward scored a hat-trick in the semi-final win over Switzerland before captaining the final win over Netherlands in Porto.
Virgil van Dijk
Van Dijk is widely regarded as the best centre-back in the world, with the eyebrow-raising £75m price Liverpool for him in January 2018 now considered a bargain.
Liverpool have been transformed from a vulnerable defence to among the best in Europe, culminating with their Champions League triumph in June of this year after finishing as runners-up 12 months prior.
Such is his calmness in possession, Van Dijk went 50 games without being dribbled past between March 2018 and August 2019, which was key to the Reds' agonising finish as runners-up behind Manchester City in the Premier League after winning 97 points.
Lionel Messi
Messi has another 12 months to celebrate but again found the game's top prizes out of his reach. Barcelona won La Liga once again as Messi was the top scorer across Europe and provided the most assists in Spain's top flight.
However, a semi-final second-leg collapse at Anfield saw Barca miss out in the Champions League once again as Liverpool scored 4-0 to seal a remarkable 4-3 aggregate win.
On the international stage, Messi suffered another semi-final exit as Argentina lost 2-0 to Brazil in the Copa America in July before beating Chile in the third-place play-off.