Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo nominated for Ballon d’Or as first five names of 30-man shortlist is released

France Football today released the first ten names of its 30 man nominees for the 2016 Ballon D'or award. Real Madrid/Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo and Wales/Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale are among the ten nominees first released.

France Football magazine, who presided over the award from 1956 to 2009 is releasing the list of nominees in bunches of fives. The other eight names in the list includes;

Gianluigi Buffon(Juventus/Italy), Sergio Aguero (Manchester City and Argentina) ,Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund and Gabon), Gonzalo Higuain (Argentina/Juventus), Paulo Dybala (Juventus/ Argentina), Kevin De Bruyne (Man city/ Belgium), Antoinne Griezmann (Atletico Madrid/ France) and Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid/ Uruguay)Ronaldo is the overwhelming favorite to win this year's award after winning the 2016 champions league and Euro 2016 with Real Madrid and Portugal respectively.