Senegal and Liverpool winger Sadio Mane (Photo: Reuters)
Senegal's winger Sadio Mane and Gabon's striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are the only African players to make it to the 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d'Or 2017, the World's best player, published by France Football on Monday.
Mane has been prolific for Liverpool over the course of the year while Aubameyang has been on a scoring spree for Dortmund claiming the Bundesliga top scorer award last season with 31 goals and is leading the chart this season with 8 goals.
Real Madrid are the most represented on the prestigious list with seven players in the shortlist including Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Marcelo, Isco and Sergio Ramos.
Some of the biggest stars like Gareth Bale, Paul Pogba, Alexis Sanchez Manuel Neuer, Sergio Aguero, Ousmane Dembele were left off this year's top crop.
The Ballon d'Or, which was established in 1956, merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year award from 2010-15 to create the FIFA Ballon d'Or, returned to France Football magazine last year.
The full list
Neymar (PSG/Brazil)
Luka Modric (Real Madrid/Croatia)
Paulo Dybala (Juventus Turin/Argentina)
Marcelo (Real Madrid/Brazil)
N'Golo Kanté (Chelsea/France)
Luis Suarez (FC Barcelona/Uruguay)
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid/Spain)
Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid/Slovenia)
Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool/Brazil)
Dries Mertens (Napoli/Belgium)
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City/Belgium)
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich/Poland)
David De Gea (Manchester United/Spain)
Harry Kane (Tottenham/England)
Edin Dzeko (AS Roma/Bosnia)
Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid/France)
Toni Kroos (Real Madrid/Germany)
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus / Italy)
Sadio Mané (Liverpool/Senegal)
Radamel Falcao (AS Monaco/Colombia)
Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona/Argentina)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund/Gabon)
Edinson Cavani (PSG/Uruguay)
Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich/Germany)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid/France)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)
Eden Hazard (Chelsea/Belgium)
Leonardo Bonucci (AC Milan/Italy)
Isco (Real Madrid/Spain)
Kylian Mbappé (PSG/France).
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