Organizers explain Messi's shortlist snub from the Ballon d'Or race

The organizers of the France Football magazine, responsible for handing out the Ballon d'Or, explained the reasons that led to the exclusion of Lionel Messi, the Paris Saint-Germain striker, from the shortlist of the 30-man award. Lionel Messi was excluded from the 30-man Ballon d’Or shortlist because of "new criteria" for the awarding of football’s most prestigious individual prize, according to event organizers France Football. Seven-time winner Messi and his Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Neymar weren’t included when the list of candidates was released on Friday, but Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo earned a place. Messi, who won the Ballon d’Or last year, departed Barcelona last summer to join PSG and won the Ligue 1 title in his first season in Paris. But the 35-year-old scored just six league goals in 26 league games during a campaign hit by injury problems, resulting in the snub from France Football.
“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,” France Football’s deputy editor-in-chief Emmanuel Bojan explained. “The Argentinian was part of the discussions to integrate the 30, but the new criteria for the Ballon d'Or were unfavorable to him: the 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 Paris was very disappointing both in terms of the visual impression and the statistics."