Ballon d'Or: Harry Kane and other Bayern professionals nominated

Harry Kane is one of the 30 candidates in the Ballon d'Or election for the best player of the past football season. The FC Bayern star striker was nominated, as were his Munich teammates Luiz Diaz, Michael Olise and Dayot Upamecano. A German player is not in the selection of the best 30 footballers. This was announced by the French sports newspaper “L'Équipe”. The honor will take place on October 26th in London.

Other players are given greater chances than Kane, especially Spain's world champion captain Rodri, French World Cup record scorer Kylian Mbappé and Argentina's superstar Lionel Messi. MLS franchise Inter Miami's Messi would be the first male winner of the prestigious award who did not play for a European club in the season being judged. The 39-year-old, who recently announced his retirement from the national team, has already won the award eight times - more often than anyone else.

“From an individual point of view, the Ballon d'Or is the greatest thing you can achieve,” Kane said in mid-August after numerous experts declared him the top candidate for the prize. "The Ballon d'Or is out of my hands. I did what I could do performance-wise." The Englishman scored an impressive 61 goals in 51 competitive games last season and led the Three Lions to the semi-finals of the World Cup.

FC Bayern is also represented in other categories. Master coach Vincent Kompany is up for election, but has to assert himself against great competition such as Spain's world champion coach Luis de la Fuente and Luis Enrique from Champions League winner Paris Saint-Germain.

In the team selection, FC Bayern is the only German club among the nominees - both for men and women. However, the Munich team only has outsider chances here; the favorites are the premier class winners Paris Saint-Germain (men) and FC Barcelona (women).

In the list of women's footballers, Klara Bühl, a German national player, is also included in the selection of the best 30 players of the year. Bühl played an important role in FC Bayern Munich's successful double season. Her Munich teammates Pernille Harder and Momoko Tanikawa are also among the 30 nominated players.

Among the goalkeepers, German national player Ann-Katrin Berger (Gotham FC) ended up on the nomination list. Among the male goalkeepers, the Swiss Gregor Kobel from Borussia Dortmund is surprisingly also up for election for the Yashin Trophy. Bayern professional and national player Lennart Karl found himself in the category of best talent.

The Golden Ball award is a journalist's choice. The prize, which is awarded by the newspaper “France Football”, which is part of the Amaury Group, has existed since 1956 and was long only considered an award for Europe's Footballer of the Year. At the same time, the world association Fifa has been honoring world footballers since 1991. Between 2010 and 2015, FIFA entered into a cooperation with the Amaury Group.