The winner of the 2024 Ballon d’Or will be officially announced in Paris on Monday night.

For only the third time since 2007, the men’s prize will go to someone other than Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo – with neither of those aging superstars having been shortlisted this year.

The official unveiling of the new winner will be confirmed at Monday’s glitzy awards ceremony, which is due to begin around 7pm (UK time).

But the result may have already been leaked as a list appearing to show the top 12 players based on voting points went viral via social media on Sunday.

The unconfirmed list shows Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior as the winner with 630 points – 54 more than Manchester City midfielder Rodri in second.

Jude Bellingham is third, while two other England stars are also in the top eight – Harry Kane in fifth and Phil Foden in eighth.

Kylian Mbappe is fourth, Lamine Yamal is seventh, while Dani Olmo, Florian Wirtz, Dani Carvajal and Antonio Rudiger are ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th respectively.

However, perhaps surprisingly, Man City goal machine Erling Haaland is only sixth on the list with 195 points.

Haaland – who finished second behind Messi in 2023 – scored 38 goals in 45 games for City last season.

One Portuguese-speaking journalist who shared the list on X (formerly Twitter) commented: ‘If this really is the leaked Ballon d’Or list, what explains Haaland in 6th? Vini Jr deservedly the best in the world.’

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