France Football has revealed the 30 finalists for the 2017 Ballon d'Or award, with names added to the prestigious shortlist over the course of the day.
The very first name to come out was that of Paris Saint-Germain's €222m megastar Neymar, quickly followed by Real Madrid midfield genius Luka Modric.
Juventus hotshot Paulo Dybala was also among the first group of five, as were Marcelo and Chelsea dynamo N'Golo Kante.
Further names joined them in due course, including constant favorites Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
The award, which returned to France Football's jurisdiction last year for the first time since 2009 after the magazine's split with FIFA, is currently held by Cristiano Ronaldo.

. No player other than Ronaldo or Lionel Messi have claimed the award since 2007 when Kaka won after inspiring AC Milan to Champions League glory.
It was 2006 the last time neither Ronaldo nor Messi were named in the top three

Barcelona beats Las Palmas with Sergio Busquets scoring the first goal and Messi scoring the last two. Las Palmas put up a good fight in the first half but were unable to put the ball behind the goal line. With 2 substitutions in the second half, Barcelona was able to put more pressure on the opposition and grab a win. See video highlight below.

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Philippe Coutinho will refuse to play for Liverpool in the Champions League after being denied his desired move to Barcelona, Sport claims. 
The Reds rejected all of Barca's bids for the Brazil international despite his interest in joining the catalan giants and he will look to strike back at the club by making himself unavailable for their European games to force a winter move.

Lionel Messi is not going to renew his Barcelona contract and will become a free agent next summer.                                                The 30-year-old has agreed terms of a new deal but has yet to put pen to paper, concerning fans of the club who just witnessed Neymar depart for PSG.
The 30-year-old whose contract expires in 2018 is furious about Barcelona’s transfer activities after failing in all their attempts to bring coutinho, Angel di-maria and Paulo dybala to camp nou.
Messi will become a free agent in 2018 should he refuse to sign a new contract.
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