Man United's Cristiano Ronaldo up for Ballon d'Or as Erling Haaland joined by six Man City stars

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo are among the 30 players to have been shortlisted for the prestigious Ballon d'Or award.

Haaland, who marked his City debut with a brace against West Ham United last Sunday, is one of six Blues stars to have been shortlisted for the gong, being joined in contention by Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez. The Norwegian has enjoyed an outstanding past 12 months or so, enjoying success with both Borussia Dortmund and his native Norway before arriving at the Etihad Stadium over the summer.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, has also enjoyed a productive past year or so, scoring 24 goals in his first season back at Old Trafford following his fairytale homecoming almost 12 months ago from Juventus. He was United's leading marksman last season and only Mohamed Salah of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min, both of whom have also made the list of nominees for the award, scored more Premier League goals (23) last season.

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Ronaldo has won the award five times in his illustrious career, meaning he needs to win it twice more to draw level with Lionel Messi, who has won it a record-breaking seven times. The United striker has not laid his hands on football's most famous individual prize since 2017.

Interestingly, the Ballon d'Or has not been won by a Premier League player since Ronaldo won it back in 2008. Since then, the award has been dominated by both Messi and Ronaldo, with Luka Modric's triumph in 2018 the exception.

Haaland, however, will lead City's hopes of one of their players winning the gong. He scored 29 goals in