Hello, if you thought I was going to stop writing about the Matildas now that the FIFA Women’s World Cup is over you’d be dead wrong. My daily routine which consists of waking up and checking Google Alerts for any Tillies updates has paid off dividends this morning because I’ve got some cracking news for you.
Come gather ’round and sound the vuvuzelas because two of our girls have been nominated for the highly coveted Ballon d’Or award. Matildas guns Hayley Raso and Sam Kerr have copped a place on the incredibly distinguished list of nominees and I couldn’t be more bloody proud.
The annual award is one of the most hotly contested in the football world every season with players from around the world vying for the chance to lift the prestigious Golden Ball trophy. The winning criteria for the Ballon d’Or takes into consideration a player’s performance on both a club and international level throughout the year.
Here’s the full nominees list to take a gander at:
- Aitana Bonmati
- Mille Bright
- Linda Caicedo
- Olga Carmona
- Rachel Daly
- Debinha
- Kadidiatou Diani
- Mary Earps
- Patricia Guijarro
- Yui Hasegawa
- Amanda Ilestedt
- Sam Kerr
- Mapi Leon
- Katie McCabe
- Hinata Miyazawa
- Lena Oberdorf
- Asisat Oshoala
- Ewa Pajor
- Salma Paralluelo
- Alexandra Popp
- Hayley Raso
- Alba Redondo
- Guro Reiten
- Wendie Renard
- Fridolina Rolfo
- Jill Roord
- Khadija Shaw
- Sophia Smith
- Georgia Stanway
- Daphne van Domeslaar
What a wonderful line-up of epic players. Women, right?!!!!!
The Ballon d’Or will be crowned on October 30 and will go to a new face after Spanish player Alexia Putellas (who has won for the past two years in a row) has been pulled from the running after suffering a knee injury for most of the season.
This opens up the field to a number of star players who had absolute blinders at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. However, the hot favourite is Spanish midfielder Aitana Bonmati who recently took out the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year Award.
Although, for the past two years Matildas superstar Sam Kerr has taken out the Ballon d’Or runner up position so 2023 could be her year too. We just won’t know until fate has been decided at the end of October and I’ll just be here waiting with a very nervous belly until then.
While we wait to see who wins the Ballon d’Or there’s plenty of cracking footy to go around with Sam Kerr kicking off the Barclays Women’s Super League when she hits the turf for Chelsea in a showdown against Tottenham on October 2 (at 3:30am welp). And you can catch fellow Matildas star Hayley Raso when she makes her debut for Real Madrid Femenino against Real Betis on September 10 (at a more respectable 5:00am).
It’s set to be a gorgeous summer of football – set your alarms and let’s goooooo.
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