The Ballon d’Or 2021 award will be held today Monday, November 29.
The ceremony to crown the best player in the world starts at 19:30 GMT at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France.
However, the organizers will begin a countdown this afternoon as we start to learn the identities of those players, male and female, who finished in position 30 and above.
Lionel Messi is widely expected to extend his record and win a seventh crown.
But he will have to see off competition from Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski.
Lewandowski has scored 38 goals in 30 league games in 2021 and has scored a goal every 66 minutes on average.
Meanwhile, Messi, who left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain in the summer, has 24 goals in 28 league games this calendar year and led Argentina to the Copa America in the summer.
Those with an outside chance of claiming the award are Chelsea’s pair of Jorginho and N’Golo Kante, Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema and Mohammed Salah of Liverpool.
