PARIS: Leicester City forwards Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy will try to break the domination of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the annual Ballon d’Or award for the world’s best player.

The stars of Leicester’s fairytale run to the English Premier League title are among 30 players announced Monday as candidates for the prize presented by France Football magazine.

Vardy — who has enjoyed a meteoric rise from amateur football to rub shoulders with the game’s biggest names — is the sole Englishman nominated for the prestigious prize that is no longer linked to FIFA.

The Foxes pair are among eight Premier League stars on the list.

Three-time world player of the year Ronaldo and last year’s victor Messi, who has won it five times altogether, will resume their perennial battle to be crowned the world’s best footballer.

Barcelona’s Argentine great Messi, who took the honour for a record fifth time last year, or Real Madrid’s Portuguese three-time winner Ronaldo have taken the coveted accolade every year since 2007, when AC Milan’s Kaka won.

Despite a dip in form this season, Ronaldo, who inspired Portugal to the Euro 2016 title and Real Madrid to an 11th Champions League triumph last season, is hot favourite to regain his title.

He is one of six Real Madrid players on the list with Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos and Pepe as the European champions boast more candidates than any other club.

Pepe and Ronaldo are also joined on the list by Sporting Lisbon’s Rui Patricio, who kept goal in Portugal’s run to Euro glory.

Messi and his two Barcelona striking partners, Neymar and Luis Suarez, scorers of more than a century of goals between them in 2016, also feature on the list along with team-mate Andres Iniesta.

Atletico Madrid and France striker Antoine Griezmann is another leading contender.

However, his compatriot Karim Benzema is not on the list, the Real Madrid striker’s year having been overshadowed by the sextape blackmail affair which led to him being frozen out of the national team ahead of the Euros.

France, with Griezmann, Hugo Lloris, Dimitri Payet and Paul Pogba, and Argentina, with Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero and Paulo Dybala, are the best-represented nations with four players each.

Copa America winners Chile have only Bayern Munich midfielder Arturo Vidal listed, and two Africans are nominated: Algeria’s Mahrez and Borussia Dortmund’s Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

France Football has reverted to the traditional vote of journalists only for an award it first made in 1956 — to Stanley Matthews, at the time with Blackpool, who beat Alfredo Di Stefano for the title.

The winner will be announced in mid-December, the magazine said.

For the past six years it was the FIFA Ballon d’Or until world football’s governing body ended its association with the award in September.

FIFA will continue to present its own world’s best player award — voted by national team coaches and captains plus media — in January.

Shortlist: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City/Argentina), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund/Gabon), Gareth Bale (Real Madrid/Wales), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus/Italy), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City/Belgium), Paulo Dybala (Juventus/Argentina), Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid/Uruguay), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid/France), Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus/Argentina), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United/Sweden), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona/Spain), Koke (Atletico Madrid/Spain), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid/Germany), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich/Poland), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham Hotspur/France), Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City/Algeria), Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina), Luka Modric (Real Madrid/Croatia), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich/Germany), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich/Germany), Neymar (Barcelona/Brazil), Dimitri Payet (West Ham United/France), Pepe (Real Madrid/Portugal), Paul Pogba (Manchester United/France), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid/Spain), Rui Patricio (Sporting Lisbon/Portugal), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal), Luis Suarez (Barcelona/Uruguay), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City/England), Arturo Vidal (Bayern Munich/Chile).

Published in Dawn October 26th, 2016