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France football magazine yesterday released its 30 man list of nominees for this year's Ballon d'Or award.
The European Golden Ball is the most prestigious individual award in the world of football, as all the history attached to it places it in high esteem among fans and players alike, with footballers considering it the highest personal honour that could be accorded them.
The list of nominees understandably generates a lot of debate among fans and pundits, with most scrutinizing the list to find out who deserved a nomination while making a case for the exclusion of others.
The limited spots available on the nomination list means that there is always going to be some notable exclusions, as everybody cannot be nominated. However, some names on this particular list are rather baffling, all the more so by the exclusions on their behalf.
Here are five players whose exclusion from the list is totally unjustified:
#5 Blaise Matuidi
Arguably one of the most underrated midfielders in the world, the 31-year-old Toulouse born powerhouse goes about his business in a very efficient yet non-flamboyant way.
Last season, Matuidi transferred to Juventus in Italy after six trophy-laden seasons at PSG and continued his business of tough tackling and effective link-up of defence and attack with minimum fuss.
In his debut season in Italy, Matuidi helped the Old Lady of Turin lift its seventh consecutive Scudetti title, playing 32 matches across the Serie A campaign, scoring three goals. He also contributed to the Coppa Italia triumph, playing five matches, as well as in the club's Champions League quarter-final run, where he started nine times and scored two goals.
At the World Cup, he was also at his imperious best, starring in a star-studded French midfield which triumphed in Russia.
He contributed to France's triumph, despite being played out of position by Deschamps in a wide role on the left as against his preferred role in the centre, but was still effective in providing defensive cover for Paul Pogba and N'golo Kante, thereby reducing the amount of space offered their opponents.
Matuidi is the quintessential definition of a box-to-box midfielder, and his starring role in Juve's league, as well as France's World Cup triumph, should have seen him nominated.
His exclusion is made more jarring by the inclusion of his international teammate Paul Pogba, who Matuidi arguably outshone at the World Cup, and who undoubtedly had a better club campaign than the Manchester United man, but missed out due to the popularity of the former most expensive player in history.
#4 Edin Dzeko
Edin Dzeko is arguably the most complete centre-forward in world football. Highly technical, strong in the air and possessing a clinical finish, what the Bosnian lacks in pace he more than makes up for with his extraordinary ability to hold up play and intelligent passing.
Another player who prefers to do his talking more on the pitch than off it, the 31-year-old doesn't get the due accolades his performances deserve.
He has scored over 300 career goals for club and country across spells with Manchester City, Wolfsburg and Roma, but rarely is his name brought up in the discussions for best strikers in the world, taking the backseat as more 'glamorous' players playing for prestigious clubs are mentioned.
In what was his best season individually till date, Edin Dzeko scored 39 goals in 51 matches across all competitions for Roma in 2016/2017 and followed it up with another impressive campaign last term.
He scored 24 goals last season, with 16 of those coming in the league to help Roma to a 3rd place finish.
However, he saved his best for the continent, as he was the star of the show, contributing 8 goals including an emphatic performance on the quarterfinal against Barcelona, where he helped the Giallarossi shockingly overturn a 4-1 deficit to help Roma qualify for the UCL semifinals for the first time ever (in its current format), where they ultimately fell to Liverpool despite their best efforts.
The Bosnian record goalscorer was one of the most consistent strikers in Europe last season, and his goal ratio was pretty impressive, particularly in the Champions League. So it, therefore, comes as a major shock that he was excluded from the Ballon d'Or nominees, especially seeing as Benzema who had a poor campaign was nominated.
#4 Denis Cheryshev
The 27-year-old spent over 14 years of his football career with Real Madrid from his formative stage to the main team, but the only notable thing about his Bernabeu spell was being the subject of controversy, having been fielded in a Copa del Rey match by Rafa Benitez despite being ineligible which led to the team's automatic elimination.
This fiasco signalled the end of his Real stay, and the Russian has been something of a journeyman since then, turning up at Sevilla, Valencia and Villarreal.
He was shockingly included in the Russian squad for the 2018 World Cup after almost a two-year absence from international football, and not much was expected from either the national team who had flattered to deceive in World Cup tune-up games or Cheryshev himself.
Going against everything the form book predicted, Russia shocked the world with her performance, led by Denis and a dedicated group of players united by belief.
The hosts tore apart Saudi Arabia in the opening match with a 5-0 demolition, and Cheryshev was the star of the show, despite starting the game from the bench.
An injury to the main striker Alan Dzagoev gave Cheryshev his opportunity, and he grabbed it with both hands.
He scored a brace and registered an assist, announcing himself as a new national hero in the process.
He contributed another goal in the 3-2 victory over Egypt, also notching another assist, before scoring one of the goals of the tournament when he curled a shot past Croatia's Danijel Subasic to open the scoring in the quarterfinal in an eventual 4-3 loss on penalties.
Though Russia exited the tournament, they had captured the hearts of millions of their compatriots, with Cheryshev high in their eyes.
Every World Cup always has its surprise story of a player who rose above the odds to give a lifetime performance, and Cheryshev was one of those.
Even though not much could be said about his domestic campaign with Villarreal, then again, neither Eden Hazard nor Paul Pogba had a great season with their clubs, but were nominated on the strength of their World Cup performance, and so should Cheryshev have been.
#3 Ciro Immobile
The 28-year-old is the talisman for Lazio, and arguably the single most important player in determining his club's fortunes across Europe, as whenever Lazio scores a goal, more often than not, Immobile has a hand in it either directly or indirectly by setting his teammate up.
After being something of a journeyman in the early part of this decade, cutting across spells including Sevilla, Dortmund, Torino and Genoa, the Italian international finally found his in the blue part of Rome when he joined Lazio in 2016.
At the Stadio Olimpico, Immobile has been transformed into one of the most lethal finishers in the world, scoring 26 goals across all competitions in his debut season with the club, before taking his goalscoring to an entirely different height with his performance last season.
The Annunziata native scored a whopping 41 goals in 47 appearances last season across all competitions, which was just three fewer than Ballon d'Or forerunners Salah and Ronaldo got.
In addition, he won the Italian Golden Boot jointly with Mauro Icardi, as his 29 league goals were more than anyone else in Serie A, while also contributing 8 goals in 9 appearances on the continent, as the Biancocelesti made it to the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
Immobile's creativity also came to the fore, as he registered a total of 11 assists, to help Lazio finished in 5th place, where they narrowly lost out on a Champions League spot to Inter Milan, finishing level on points but edged out by an inferior head to head.
This season, Immobile has started from where he left off, already scoring 6 goals, including 5 in the league, and on evidence of his displays last season, it is shambolic that he was not included among the nominees for the 2018 Ballon d'Or.
#2 Samuel Umtiti
The 24-year-old Cameroon-born French international defender has been one of the rocks of the Barcelona defence since his 2016 transfer from Lyon.
After enduring a rocky start to his Camp Nou career, he has overcome that to become a mainstay in the Barcelona team, helping cover up for the more error-prone Gerard Pique, and his absences in the Barcelona defence is always felt, as they usually lack the composure and solidity the Frenchman offers.
He contributed to Barca's La Liga triumph last season making 25 appearances, and was also very instrumental in France's World Cup triumph, marshalling the defence, and scoring the vital only goal in the 1-0 semifinal victory over Belgium which helped Les Bleus make it to the final.
Umtiti was an integral member of two title-winning teams, and if his international partner Raphael Varane was good enough to be nominated, then so is he.
#1 Philippe Coutinho
The 26-year-old Brazilian had his season truncated due to transfer disputes between Liverpool and Barcelona, which meant he started the season late for The Reds.
He still proved his worth to the Kops, scoring 12 goals and 9 assists in 20 appearances. With 7 goals coming in the league and 5 in the UCL, including a hat-trick against Spartak Moscow.
Coutinho finally got his dream move to Barcelona in a deal worth over €140m in January, making him the third most expensive player of all time, but he had his appearances limited to domestic competitions, as he had already starred in the Champions League with Liverpool.
He still performed incredibly well in the Blaugrana's colours, helping it to a domestic double, scoring 19 goals in 22 appearances.
Heading into the World Cup with Brazil, Coutinho was expected to play the role of a supporting cast as Neymar starred to lead his nation to glory.
However, the scripts seemingly changed, as Neymar lived true to his role as an actor, but more on the floor rolling around with theatrics, while it was Coutinho who stepped up and was the man who lifted his country on his shoulders in their ultimately fruitless World Cup quest which was ended at the quarter-final stage.
Coutinho had brilliant domestic campaign across two different leagues despite having a truncated season and was one of a very few Brazilian players who rose to the occasion at the World Cup hence his exclusion from the Ballon d'Or nominees is inexcusable.
