France Football, the organizers of the Ballon d’Or award, has listed the players with the most nominations in history.

This was published on its social media pages on Wednesday, as part of the build-up to the unveiling of this year’s nominees.

According to them, Portugal captain, Cristiano Ronaldo is the player with the most nominations (18).

Ronaldo has taken the award home five times.

However, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who has been nominated 16 times, has won it a record eight times.

Italy football legend, Paolo Maldini, has made the shortlist 13 times, but never won it.

The highest finish for Maldini came in 1995 when he was runner-up to George Weah.