Jamie Vardy has been nominated for the Ballon d'Or award alongside the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale after helping Leicester win the Premier League title.
The 29-year-old striker, who scored 24 goals in a historic season for Leicester, was named on a 30-man list of nominees for the prestigious award alongside team-mate Riyad Mahrez, which is currently held by Barcelona star Messi.
France Football revealed Vardy was in contention in a tweet published on Monday evening.
Sole Englishman
The Sheffield-born player is the only Englishman nominated, while Real Madrid’s Bale represents Wales after his heroics at Euro 2016. In total, eight Premier League players have been nominated.
Manchester City
and city rivals United will hope Sergio Agüero,
Kevin De Bruyne
,
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
and
Paul Pogba
threaten the top three when journalists begin the next round of voting, while West Ham’s free-kick specialist
Dimitri Payet
and Tottenham goalkeeper
Hugo Lloris
are also contenders.
Regular victors Messi and Ronaldo – the latter having endured a lean year by his usual prolific standards – will face stiff competition from Luis Suárez, Neymar and Robert Lewandowski. Paulo Dybala, Antoine Griezmann and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will provide further cause for concern to the world established top order.
Among the surprise omissions are Manchester United keeper David De Gea, Arsenal's Mesut Ozil and Juventus's Leonardo Bonucci.
