Ballon d’Or 2019 RECAP: Lionel Messi wins SIXTH award, Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk second

And the winner is…

20:05: Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson wins the 2019 Yashin Trophy! The Brazilian international is named goalkeeper in the world. Doubt he’ll be dropping the trophy on his way off the stage.

Barcelona’s Marc-André ter Stegen comes in second and Manchester City stopper Ederson settles for third.

“It’s a great honour, you strikers make our lives difficult. I want to thank my wife for supporting me wherever I go and I’d like to thank God,” says Alisson.

Next up

20:00: Time for the 2019 Yashin Trophy, given to the year’s best men’s goalkeeper. Weirdly, it’s being presented by Robert Lewandowski. The enemy of goalkeepers across the world…

The Bayern Munich talisman begins giving his speech before host Didier Drogba cuts him off to discuss their shared love of torturing goalkeepers and addiction to scoring goals.

Numbers 10-8

19:55: The top ten is starting to take shape with out first three players revealed.

10th – Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)

9th – Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

8th – Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)

And the winner is…

19:50: The winner of the 2019 Kopa Trophy, awarded to the world’s best under-21 player is… Matthijs de Ligt! The former Ajax and Juventus defender, 20, gives a lovely speech as he collects the award. His voice cracks and wishes everyone a lovely evening.

That looked to be that but you guessed it – everyone is treated to a montage.

Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho comes in second and Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix in third.

Kylian Mbappe snub

19:46: Thrilling conversation going on tonight. Well I think it’s thrilling – we’re having it translated from French. Chelsea legend Didier Drogba is taking a selfie with Kylian Mbappe on stage because he snubbed the then unknown PSG star a decade ago after a Champions League match.

What are the awards?

19:45: There will be four trophies dished out this evening. Trophies? Gongs? Awards? We’ll stick with trophies…

The 2019 Men’s Ballon d’Or

The 2019 Women’s Ballon d’Or

The 2019 Kopa Trophy, awarded to the world’s best under-21 player

The 2019 Yashin Trophy, given to the year’s best men’s goalkeeper

Montage…

19:40: I’ve just covered the FA Cup third-round draw – so I’ve had my fill of montages for one evening. But the Ballon d’Or doesn’t care for my woes – we’ve just had a three-minute highlights package of all 30 nominees.

And we’re LIVE!

19:35: The ceremony has just started in Paris. We’ve got Didier Drogba and Sandy Heribert hosting the event. The Chelsea legend has just walked off stage to collect a pair of boots and challenge Lionel Messi and Co. to a game of five-a-side. Top bantz…

Royalty arrives…

They’re all arriving on the red carpet now! Lionel Messi, Virgil van Dijk and Robert Lewandowski are in the building having stopped for various pictures and interviews.

There was a wee bit of drama as a fan tried to break through the Barcelona delegation to get a selfie with Messi. I’m sad to report he didn’t get the snap and was ushered away by one of the security giants. Instagram’s loss if you ask me…

“It’s nice to be here of course. We will see what happens. It is a great honour to be here and be in the bracket of those sort of players. It gives me a lot of motivation to keep going,” Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk told reporters.

What happens next?

I’m glad you asked. After some extensive Googling and fastidious research – I now have the answer.

The Ballon d’Or ceremony is scheduled to get underway at 7.30pm at Paris’ Theatre du Chatelet. So we’ve got about 90 minutes to argue about the order of the top 30, watch the stars arrive on the red carpet and reminisce on how exactly Michael Owen took the prize in 2001.

The top ten…

So, after that fairly painless process – we’re left with the final ten all battling it out for the chance to come second to Lionel Messi.

That’s what the odds suggest anyway. Quite a surprise to see Riyad Mahrez in there but I suppose he helped Algeria win the Africa Cup of Nations. I’m probably not the best judge of these rankings – I’d have wanted Mohamed Eisa in there somewhere…

Alisson (Liverpool)

Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)

Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)



Sadio Mane (Liverpool)

Kylian Mbappe (PSG)

Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)

Numbers 15-11…

You can tell we’re getting to the business end of things – none of this joint-placed nonsense. These illustrious stars get their own number. With a combined value of about £400billion – we have places 11-15.

If someone could explain to me why on earth Raheem Sterling is so low down on this list – I’d appreciate it. That also means his colleague Riyad Mahrez will place in the top ten. Madness.

15th – Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus)

14th – Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

13th – Eden Hazard (Real Madrid)

12th – Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)

11th – Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona)

Numbers 20-16…

Ah, looks like I’ve made a mistake. Revealing them in batches of five has been my downfall because there was a joint 20th place. I do hope you can forgive me for this humiliating error. Anyway, quite a few big-hitters here with the rogue inclusion of Dusan Tadic. Nothing against him, just baffled why we never saw any evidence of this ability at Southampton…

20th – Dusan Tadic (Ajax)

19th – Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)

18th – Antoine Griezmann (Barcelona)

17th – Roberto Firmino (Liverpool)

16th – Sergio Agüero (Manchester City)

Numbers 25-20…

The next batch arrives for you football hipsters. More of a Premier League flavour to these five – north London actually with two Spurs stars and one from Arsenal. I will not be fielding questions as to how exactly Hugo Lloris is so high up the list – I haven’t the energy…

24th – Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli)

24th – Marc Andre Ter Stegen (Barcelona)

23rd – Hugo Lloris (Tottenham)

22nd – Son Heung-min (Tottenham)

20th – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)

Numbers 30-26…

Well this was never going to be easy. It appears that NOBODY will be ranked last out of the top 30 because there are three players ranked equally at 28th. I’d expect Felix to feature way higher in this list next season – and Benzema funnily enough, who’s had something of a rejuvenation at the Bernabeu.



28th – Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid)

28th – Marquinhos (PSG)

28th – Donny van der Beek (Ajax)

26th – Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)

26th – Georginio Wijnaldum (Liverpool)

Right…

17:20: OK, no fluff or faff – let’s get down to brass tax.

The top ten finalists have been announced and the other 20 nominees have been ranked in order.

In true X-Factor style – I’m going to maximise the tension for absolutely no reason by revealing them in batches of five. You’re welcome…

Just realised what a pretty trophy it is. Kind of looks like something from the gift shop at a geological museum.

Afternoon…

17:15: Hello everyone and welcome to our LIVE coverage of the Ballon d’Or 2019.

It’ll be an evening of glitz and glamour as the world’s football elite gather at Paris’ Theatre du Chatelet to congratulate themselves and tuck into the fanciest prawn cocktail’s ever crafted.

I’ll explain the format in just a moment and provide you with the latest updates throughout the evening.