Benzema, Ronaldo, Messi: Who will win the 2022 Ballon d'Or?

The 2022 Ballon d’Or ceremony takes place on Monday with Karim Benzema highly expected to be crowned European Footballer of the Year.

While there can be very little doubt over who wins the most prestigious individual award in football, we wanted to look at the runners and riders ahead of the award.

France Football released a list of the 30 players who stand a chance of winning this year’s Ballon d’Or in which 100 journalists – one from each of the Fifa top-100 ranked nations – will vote for their five favourite players.

The scoring system is as follows:

So, how will the top 30 look? We've taken a wild guess at what we think will happen.

We're still getting over the fact that Lionel Messi didn't make the top 30...

The Brazilian was part of a Liverpool side that won the domestic cup double as well as almost winning the Premier League and Champions League. His slow start to the season may not have helped him in the vote - although that shouldn't been taken into account.

The AC Milan man is one of two goalkeepers in the top 30 list. He helped his side win Serie A last season, conceding just 21 goals in 32 league games.

Let's not forget Nunez scored 34 goals for Benfica last season, earning him a club-record move to Liverpool.

Kimmich registered 12 assists as Bayern won the Bundesliga. While he's a world class player, he's unlikely to pick up too many votes.

Rudiger made the PFA Team of the Year after a strong final season at Chelsea.

He's had a difficult start to the 2022/23 season but Alexander-Arnold had a fantastic season last time out, helping Liverpool win two trophies. He was in the PFA Team of the Year and the Champions League Team of the Season.

Vlahovic started last season on fire for Fiorentina, earning him a move