Ballon d’Or 2022 predictions: No Kevin De Bruyne or Erling Haaland in our top five – this year, anyway

Now it gets difficult. Now it gets really difficult.

Over the past few weeks we have been trickling out our predictions for the Ballon d’Or awards, which are handed out on October 17. With a 30-player shortlist for the men’s award, and 20 nominated for the women’s prize handed out by France Football, we started with the players we believed would get the lowest amount of votes.

Ad But now we enter the business end, and having already forecast Cristiano Ronaldo and Alex Morgan to miss out on the top 10, it is time to decipher which players may miss out on the men’s top five and women’s top four. Champions LeagueErling Haaland is breaking football — The Warm-Up3 HOURS AGO This hasn’t been easy, with every player in the men’s top 10 especially looking capable of finishing on the podium, but given the voting should be based on the 2021-22 season alone, we’re backing a leading 2023 Ballon d’Or contender to miss out on the top five this time around.

Yes, we’re talking about the goal-a-minute Erling Haaland. See where we place the Norwegian and a handful of other players below… ‘Benzema easily deserves it’ – Mane chooses Real Madrid star as his Ballon d’Or winner Ballon d’Or predictions: No top 10 for Ronaldo or Morgan 'I hope I have the opportunity’ – Pedri wants to win Ballon d’Or in the future Men’s Ballon d’Or: Our 10-6 predictions 10.

Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid) 2021-22 highlights – La Liga and Champions League winner, 22 clean sheets including Champions League final, Champions League Team of the Season Believe us when we say finalising this top 10 was not easy, and when chopping and changing around the names we had Courtois in the top five temporarily given his Champions League final heroics. The Belgian was simply