Ballon d’Or Kopa Trophy explained

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Kylian Mbappe, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Christian Pulisic are among the nominees for the first ever Kopa Trophy – an award for the best player under the age of 21 to be voted for by the previous 33 winners of the Ballon d’Or.

An outstanding debut season saw Liverpool full-back Alexander-Arnold play in the Champions League final against Real Madrid before breaking into the England World Cup squad at the end of the campaign.

World Cup winner and PSG forward Mbappe was also nominated, with USMNT and Borussia Dortmund star Christian Pulisic – who was linked with a big-money move to Liverpool in the summer transfer window – joining him on the 10-man shortlist.

The Ballon d’Or, now separate from Fifa’s own player of the year award, is bestowed annually by France Football magazine. Modric won the 2018 Fifa men’s award last month, while the women’s award went to Brazil forward Marta, another Women’s Ballon d’Or award nominee.

Previous winners of the Ballon d’Or who will decide who wins the Kopa Award include Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho, Michael Owen, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo.

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Ballon d’Or Kopa Award nominees in full

  • Houssem Aouar (France/Lyon, 20)
  • Trent Alexander-Arnold (England/Liverpool, 20)
  • Patrick Cutrone (Italy/AC Milan, 20)
  • Ritsu Doan (Japan, FC Groningen, 20)
  • Gianluigi Donnarumma (Italy/AC Milan, 19)
  • Amadou Haidara (Mali/RB Salzburg, 20)
  • Justin Kluivert (Netherlands/AS Roma, 19)
  • Kylian Mbappe (France/PSG, 19)
  • Christian Pulisic (USA/Dortmund, 20)
  • Rodrygo Goes (Brazil/Santos, 17)

The average age of the thirty nominated players is 28.2 years with Kylian Mbappe the youngest at 19 and Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric the oldest at 33. Thirteen players are on the wrong side of 30, 16 are in their 20s and Mbappe is the lone teenager.

Real Madrid leads with 8 nominees while Liverpool is second with 4. Nineteen players are European, nine are from South America and two from Africa. All thirty nominees play for European teams.

In terms of positions, 16 forwards have been nominated, 6 midfielders, 4 defenders and 4 goalkeepers. Only one goalkeeper, Russian Lev Yashin, has ever won the trophy and that happened in 1963. The last defender to win was Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 on the back of Italy’s World Cup win. Yashin was 34 when he won and Cannavaro 33.

France leads in terms of nationality with 7 players nominated followed by Brazil with 4.

Germany, Netherlands, and Portugal lead all other countries with 7 all-time wins while no team has had a player win the trophy more times than Barcelona. A win by Luka Modric would, however, tie Real Madrid with Barcelona with 11 wins.

The Ballon d’Or was instituted in 1956 to recognize Europe’s best player and the first winner Stanley Matthews of Blackpool. Matthews was 41 years old when he won the trophy and he remains the oldest recipient.

 

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In 1995 the net was cast wider to include any player representing a European club and in 2007 the eligibility was expanded worldwide.

Between 2010 and 2015 the FIFA and Ballon d’Or merged into one award but the two went their separate ways for 2016 and on.

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