Five Gunners nominated for Ballon d’Or awards

Five Arsenal players are in the running to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or after being nominated for the male and female awards.

The annual prize, widely seen as the game’s most prestigious individual award, sees journalists from around the world cast their votes to crown the best player. It has been awarded to men since 1956, while the women’s award has been going since 2018.

For the second year in a row, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard have been shortlisted, and this time they have been joined by Declan Rice and William Saliba.

Meanwhile, recent arrival Mariona Caldentey is a contender for the Women’s Ballon d’Or.

A back-to-back winner of our Player of the Year, Martin was sensational in the middle of the park last season, playing in 48 of our 52 matches in all competitions, scoring 11 times and laying on 11 further assists. 10 of those came in the Premier League, bettering his tally from the season before by three, and saw him nominated for the Premier League and PFA Player of the Year awards.

Bukayo recorded his highest-ever goalscoring tally, topping our scoring charts with 20 in all competitions. He also laid on 14 assists to his teammates across a campaign that also saw him reach 50 goals and 50 assists for us, captain the side for the first time.

Declan was also a part of that Three Lions side, but at club level he scored a personal best seven times, and laid on 10 goals for teammates, nine of which were in the Premier League – one short of his total assists in 242 matches for West Ham United. He was a nominee for the Premier League Player of the Season, and was runner-up in the Football Writers’ awards.

William was an ever-present in the Premier League last term, playing 4,502 out of 4,680 possible minutes, the highest total recorded by an outfielder in our colours since Per Mertesacker in 2013/14. He kept 18 clean sheets, more than any other player in the division and helped France reach the semi-finals of Euro 2024, earning himself a spot in the UEFA Team of the Tournament.

All four players were recently named in the PFA Team of the Season.

Mariona meanwhile joined us this summer after 10 years with Barcelona, during which time she won 25 titles. She started Spain’s World Cup final triumph over England back in August 2023, and also won the 2023/24 Nations League when she scored in the final. Last term secured a treble with the Catalan club, including the Women’s Champions League, scoring 19 goals in 45 appearances in all competitions.

The winners will be announced on Monday, October 28 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris.