The Ballon d'Or organisers have explained Messi's snub & Ronaldo's inclusion for 2022 award

For the first time since 2006, Lionel Messi is not in the running to win the Ballon d’Or.

The 30 nominees for the latest edition of football’s most prestigious individual accolade were officially announced on Friday evening, with the seven-time winner missing out entirely.

Messi endured a slightly tough first season at Paris Saint-Germain in 2021/22, scoring only 11 goals across all competitions. He did assist a further 15 from his 34 appearances, though.

Those numbers are still pretty darn good in our opinion, but clearly weren’t enough to sway the Ballon d’Or judges over at France Football, who instead opted for the likes of Rafael Leao, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Dusan Vlahovic.

On the flip side, Messi’s eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo received a record-extending 19th nomination after bagging 24 goals in a poor Manchester United side last season.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone has agreed with the decisions made about arguably the two greatest players in history.

As such, France Football journalist Emmanuel Bojan has decided to come out and explain the reasoning behind them.

In a Q&A with French publication L’Equipe, Bojan said: “Inevitably, Lionel Messi, with his 15 appearances in a row since 2006, his seven Ballon d’Or victories, his title holder status, weighs very heavily when it comes to the final choice.

“The Argentinian was part of the discussions to integrate the 30, but the new criteria for the Ballon d’Or were unfavorable to him: disappearance of the criterion of a player’s entire career, and new periodicity, modeled on a season of football and no longer over a calendar year, which does not make it possible to integrate the Copa America of July 11, 2021.

“And then, it must be admitted that his first season in