The Ballon d'Or shortlist the last time Cristiano Ronaldo wasn't nominated

The Ballon d'Or is the biggest individual award in football and the shortlist causes quite a stir each year, arguably more so than the announcement of the winners.

In the men's Ballon d'Or, two names have been dominant for a very long time. Even when not winning it, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have always been firmly in the conversation over the past 20 years.

For the first time since 2003, though, Ronaldo has not made the list of male nominees. Having moved to Al Nassr in January, Ronaldo isn't in the European spotlight quite so much and wasn't at his best at Manchester United before the move happened.

2003 was a very long time ago in football terms, so here are the players he was up against when he received his first nomination for the Ballon d'Or.

When was Cristiano Ronaldo first nominated for the Ballon d'Or?

Ronaldo had recently moved from Sporting CP to Manchester United when he was first nominated for a Ballon d'Or award in 2004. He was a tricky young winger who was clearly a raw but massive talent.

He received some votes to win the Ballon d'Or that year, getting one second-place vote, a third-place vote and two fourth-place votes. That meant he was joint-12th in the final ranking with Liverpool's Milan Barros. Andriy Shevchenko won the Ballon d'Or that year with two more votes than Deco while Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry and Theodoros Zagorakis rounded out the top five.

2003 Ballon d'Or nominees

There were 50 nominees for the 2003 Ballon d'Or before Ronaldo was regarded as one of the best players in the world. 26 of them received votes to win the award while the remaining 24 couldn't manage a vote between them.

Non-voted players

In terms of those who were really in with a chance of winning the award, there were some huge names that still carry a lot of weight and nostalgia for football fans.

The likes of David Beckham, Gianluigi Buffon, Zinedine Zidane and Paolo Maldini were all in the frame to scoop the award. There were also some more minor names who received votes such as Francesco Toldo, Jan Koller and Nihat Kahveci.

Below is the list of vote receivers in winning order from the 2003 Ballon d'Or.

Voted-for players

2023 Ballon d'Or nominees

Ronaldo will perhaps be paying a bit less attention to things this time as he has not been nominated at the 2023 Ballon d'Or awards. Some great players have made the shortlist and whether the Al Nassr forward would have deserved to make the cut had he been included is up for debate.

• Julian Alvarez - Manchester City/Argentina
• Nicolo Barella - Inter/Italy
• Jude Bellingham - Borussia Dortmund/Real Madrid/England
• Karim Benzema - Real Madrid/Al Ittihad/France
• Yassine Bounou - Sevilla/Al Hilal/Morocco
• Kevin De Bruyne - Manchester City/Belgium
• Ruben Dias - Manchester City/Portugal
• Antoine Griezmann - Atletico Madrid/France
• Ilkay Gundgan - Manchester City/Barcelona/Germany
• Josko Gvardiol - RB Leipzig/Manchester City/Croatia
• Erling Haaland - Manchester City/Norway
• Harry Kane - Tottenham/Bayern Munich/England
• Randal Kolo Muani - Eintracht Frankfurt/PSG/France
• Khvicha Kvaratskhelia - Napoli/Georgia
• Robert Lewandowski - Barcelona/Poland
• Emiliano Martinez - Aston Villa/Argentina
• Lautaro Martinez - Inter/Argentina
• Kylian Mbappe - PSG/France
• Lionel Messi - PSG/Inter Miami/Argentina
• Kim Min-jae - Napoli/Bayern Munich/South Korea
• Luka Modric - Real Madrid/Croatia
• Jamal Musiala - Bayern Munich/Germany
• Martin Odegaard - Arsenal/Norway
• Andre Onana - Inter/Manchester United/Cameroon
• Victor Osimhen - Napoli/Nigeria
• Rodri - Manchester City/Spain
• Bukayo Saka - Arsenal/England
• Mohamed Salah - Liverpool/Egypt
• Bernardo Silva - Manchester City/Portugal
• Vinicius Junior - Real Madrid/Brazil

READ MORE ON THE 2023 BALLON D'OR NOMINATIONS AND PREDICTED RANKINGS