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

Nazir Hamzah September 8, 2023

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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 Do’r.

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

Player	Nationality	Club(s)
Pablo Aimar	Argentina	Valencia
Sol Campbell	England	Arsenal
Iker Casillas	Spain	Real Madrid
Christian Chivu	Romania	Ajax and Roma
Samuel Eto’o	Cameroon	Mallorca
Luis Figo	Portugal	Real Madrid
Giovane Elber	Brazil	Bayern Munich and Lyon
Ludovic Giuly	France	Monaco
Oliver Kahn	Germany	Bayern Munich
Patrick Kluivert	Netherlands	Barcelona
Darko Kovacevic	Serbia and Montenegro	Real Sociedad
Claude Makelele	France	Real Madrid and Chelsea
Michael Owen	England	Liverpool
Pauleta	Portugal	Bordeaux and PSG
Robert Pires	France	Arsenal
Michel Salgado	Spain	Real Madrid
Paul Scholes	England	Manchester United
Lillian Thuram	France	Juventus
Hatem Trabelsi	Tunisia	Ajax
David Trezeguet	France	Juventus
Patrick Viera	France	Arsenal
Christian Vieri	Italy	Inter
Sylvain Wiltord	France	Arsenal
Gianluca Zambrotta	Italy	Juventus

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

Player	Nationality	Club(s)	Total score
Pavel Nedved	Czech Republic	Juventus	190
Thierry Henry	France	Arsenal	128
Paolo Maldini	Italy	AC Milan	123
Andriy Shevchenko	Ukraine	Milan	67
Zinedine Zidane	France	Real Madrid	64
Ruud van Nistelrooy	Netherlands	Manchester United	61
Raul	Spain	Real Madrid	32
Roberto Carlos	Brazil	Real Madrid	27
Gianluigi Buffon	Italy	Juventus	19
David Beckham	England	Manchester United and Real Madrid	17
Ronaldo	Brazil	Real Madrid	11
Henrik Larsson	Sweden	Celtic	6
Alessandro Del Piero	Italy	Juventus	4
Dida	Brazil	AC Milan	4
Roy Makaay	Netherlands	Netherlands	4
Alessandro Nesta	Italy	AC Milan	4
Deco	Portugal	Porto	4
Nihat Kahveci	Turkey	Real Sociedad	3
Francesco Totti	Italy	Roma	3
Michael Ballack	Germany	Bayern Munich	2
Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Sweden	Ajax	2
Filippo Inzaghi	Italy	AC Milan	1
Jan Koller	Czech Republic	Borussia Dortmund	1
Adrian Mutu	Romania	Parma and Chelsea	1
Ronaldinho	Brazil	PSG and Barcelona	1
Francesco Toldo	Italy	Inter	1

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 Do’r. 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.