Footballers Karim Benzema, Riyad Mahrez, Mo Salah among Arab nominees for 2022 Ballon d'Or

Arab football players scored nominations on Friday for this year’s prestigious Ballon d'Or awards, due to be held in October in Paris.

Liverpool’s Mo Salah, who captains Egypt, Manchester City winger and Algeria captain Riyad Mahrez, and French-Algerian Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema are among the 30 nominees.

Other nominees include Bayern Munich forward Sadio Mane, Tottenham striker Son Heung-min, and Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo.

Mahrez’s stellar performance this year propelled Manchester City to a sixth English Premier League trophy in 11 seasons and took them to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals.

Salah was the Premier League's joint top scorer with 23 goals, and played a key role in Liverpool's journey to the Champions League final and second place in the English top flight.

Real Madrid veteran Benzema helped his team secure their 35th La Liga title and 14th Champions League win, and finished the season as both the Spanish league and European championship's top scorer.

Noticeably absent from the nominee list is Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who has failed to score a nomination for the first time since 2005.

Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou received a nomination for the Lev Yashin Trophy for best goalkeeper following an excellent season at Spanish club Sevilla.

Bounou is the first Arab to be nominated in this Ballon d'Or category since its inception in 2019.