Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been named in the Ballon d’Or Dream Team, which replaces the individual award.
Other veterans named in the award include David Beckham, Luis Figo, Brazilian world cup winner, Ronaldinho amongst others.
The organiser of the Ballon d’Or, France Football has revealed the nominees for the forward positions in the Ballon d’Or Dream Team. This is coming after some weeks it revealed its choices for goalkeeper, defenders and midfielders.
The coronavirus pandemic forced France Football not to award the Ballon d’Or in 2020. Instead, it chose to try and select the best historical XI of players from the history of the sport.
Arrangement of historical XI of players explained
Few weeks after announcing its nominees for the best defenders and midfielders, the forwards have been separated into right-sided, central and left-sided players for the vote with 10 candidates for each position.
France Football on Monday announced the nominees for the right side of the attack. Barcelona’s all-time record highest goalscorer, Messi tops the list that includes greats of the game such as Garrincha, George Best, Beckham, Figo, Jairzinho, Kevin Keegan, and Stanley Matthews.
France Football picked Brazilian greats, Romário and Ronaldo. Others selected for the central attacking role are Johan Cruyff, George Weah, Kenny Dalglish, Marco van Besten, Eusébio, Dennis Bergkamp, and Sandor Kocsis.
In the left flank, there is Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivelino. Other options in this position include former Barcelona forward Hristo Stoichkov, Ryan Giggs, Thierry Henry, and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
The final team will be selected by 170 France Football correspondents around the world.
Recall that France Football a few weeks ago released the first set of 40 nominees for the Ballon d’Or Dream Team. They include goalkeeper, right back, left back and centre back .
The midfielder nominees were unveiled on Monday, 12 October while the defenders’ list were revealed a week earlier.
Included in the best goalkeepers and defenders lists were four Real Madrid legends. Iker Casillas was named alongside Gordon Banks, Gianluigi Buffon, Sepp Maier, Manuel Neuer, Thomas Nkono, Peter Schmeichel, Edwin Van der Sar, Lev Yashin and Dino Zoff.
Also nominated in the defensive unit wa current skipper, Sergio Ramos. Others include Franco Baresi, Franz Beckenbauer, Marcel Desailly, Ronald Koeman, Bobby Moore, Daniel Pasarella, Matthias Sammer, Fabio Cannavaro and Gaetano Scirea.
