Kim Min-jae Included in 30 Ballon d'Or Candidates... Will Son Heung-min Pass?
Shoulder to shoulder with Messi, Holland, Mbappe...
Son Heung-min and Ronaldo were left out of the candidates, and as a defender, Cannavaro won the most recent award in 2006.
Son Heung-min ranked 11th, the highest ever for an Asian player.
Kim Min-jae, the ‘iron pillar' who plays for Bayern Munich in the German professional soccer Bundesliga, was selected as one of 30 candidates for the Ballon d'Or, a world-renowned soccer award. 온라인카지노사이트
France Football, a French soccer media outlet that hosts the Ballon d'Or, announced 30 candidates for this year's Ballon d'Or on the 7th (Korean time).
Kim Min-jae, who joined Bayern Munich ahead of this season, was also included as a candidate.
Kim Min-jae is the fourth Korean player to be nominated for the Ballon d'Or after Seol Ki-hyun, who played in the Belgian league in 2002, Park Ji-sung, who played for England's Manchester United in 2005, and Son Heung-min (Tottenham) in 2019 and 2022.
In 2019, Son Heung-min received 4 5th place votes from the voters and ranked 22nd out of 30 candidates with 4 points, and in 2021, after becoming the joint top scorer (23 goals) in the English Premier League (EPL), he ranked 11th in the Ballon d'Or final.
He recorded the highest ranking among Asian players.
Among the 30 candidates this year, Kim Min-jae is the only Asian player.
Minjae Kim joins Lionel Messi (Inter Miami, Argentina), Erling Holland (Manchester City, Norway), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid, France), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich, England), and Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) on the Ballon d'Or list. ·Poland), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain, France), Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid, Brazil), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid, England), and Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia).
Only three defenders were nominated: Ruben Dias (Manchester City, Portugal), Joszko Gvardiol (Manchester City, Croatia), and Minjae Kim.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nasr, Portugal), who is second in history (5 times) in terms of number of awards after Messi (7 times), was not among the 30 candidates this time.
Son Heung-min's name was also left out of the Ballon d'Or nominations.
Kim Min-jae, who has shown remarkable growth every year, was even nominated for the Ballon d'Or.
Kim Min-jae, who began making a name for himself at Jeonbuk Hyundai in the K League, went on to play in Europe through Beijing Guoan (China) and then Fenerbahce (Turkiye) in 2021.
Kim Min-jae, who raised his stock price with his impeccable defense, showed his best performance in Naples (Italy) last season and won the Serie A best defender award, and ahead of this season, he recorded the highest transfer fee ever for an Asian player (50 million euros, about 71.5 billion won). Wearing the uniform of the famous German club Bayern Munich.
Attention is being paid to whether Kim Min-jae can replace Son Heung-min's 11th place in the Ballon d'Or Asian player's highest ranking.
The most recent defender to win the Ballon d'Or is Fabio Cannavaro (Italy) in 2006.
The winners will be announced on the 30th of next month.
