The top 20 players for the 2022 Ballon d'Or have been named - Sadio Mane only 5th

The race for the 2022 edition of the coveted Ballon d’Or is beginning to crank up.

France Football announced in March that rules for Ballon d’Or voting have been updated, with two changes in particular catching the eye.

Firstly, performances will now only be judged over a season rather than a calendar year, so players have little time remaining to leave a lasting impression in their hunt for the title.

Secondly, the significance placed on team honours achieved – better known as ‘Jorginho’s Law’ – has now been scaled back, meaning there will be a primary focus on a players’ performance and whether they’ve won 16 trophies that year as a sub is irrelevant.

Okay, that’s overexaggerated but you get the jist.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at how the race to be crowned the world’s best player is shaping up.

The power rankings are courtesy of our friends at GOAL who have been tracking the best players throughout the season.

20. Erling Haaland

19. Harry Kane

18. Luis Diaz

17. Joao Cancelo

16. Diogo Jota

15. Virgil van Dijk

14. Riyad Mahrez

13. Christopher Nkunku

12. Thiago Alcantara

11. Bernardo Silva

10. Trent Alexander-Arnold

9. Phil Foden

8. Vinicius Junior

7. Luka Modric

6. Kevin De Bruyne

5. Sadio Mane

4. Kylian Mbappe

3. Robert Lewandowski

2. Mohamed Salah

1. Karim Benzema

There you have it, Benzema is leading the charge as we head into the final stage of the season and understandly so.

The Frenchman’s tally of 45 goals and 13 assists to date, not to mention spearheading Real Madrid’s La Liga triumph and deep Champions League run place him firmly in pole position – Salah will need to do something special to usurp his season long rival at this point.

Moving down the list, Mane