Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Marcus Rashford and the 2023 Ballon d'Or shortlist's biggest snubs

Inter had two players nominated for the Ballon d'Or in Nicolo Barella and Lautaro Martinez but not a single member of the defence that played such an integral role in Simone Inzaghi's side reaching the Champions League final, as well as completely nullifying the threat posed by Haaland in Istanbul.

Federico Dimarco is certainly entitled to feel a little miffed. As well as doing excellent defensive work throughout Inter's surprise European run, the childhood Inter fan also excelled going forward, with only Kevin De Bruyne (six) registering more assists that the Italian (five).

Dimarco also ended the season with 14 goal involvements overall, scoring six himself, to rank fourth among defenders across Europe's 'Big Five' leagues. The 25-year-old was never a serious contender to win the Ballon d'Or but a little recognition would have been nice!

Casemiro is copping plenty of flak right now - and some of it is justified. But the Brazilian is not being helped by playing in such an unbalanced Manchester United midfield.

It's also worth remembering that the Ballon d'Or voting is based on last season's performances and Casemiro was fantastic for the Red Devils in 2022-23, having a transformative effect on Erik ten Hag's team following his arrival from Real Madrid.

Indeed, there is simply no getting away from the fact that United would never have ended their trophy drought or got themselves back into the Champions League without Casemiro, who was also one of his country's best players at the World Cup.

So, the fact that he's not made the 30-strong shortlist for the Ballon d'Or is truly puzzling.

Has the German been punished for Barcelona's Champions League group-stage elimination? One would imagine so, given it's difficult to think of any other reason why Marc-Andre ter Stegen was ignored. The criminally-underrated 31-year-old was absolutely outstanding last season, as the numbers underline.

He featured in all 38 of Barcelona's games during their dominant Liga triumph and conceded just 18 goals. Ter Stegen also kept more clean sheets in all competitions than any other goalkeeper in Europe (28) - while maintaining a staggering 75 percent save success rate.

It really is hard to know what more he could have done to get a Ballon d'Or nod, given he was one of the outstanding individuals in a successful team.

A seriously strange omission. According to Opta, only six players were directly involved in more goals in all competitions last season than Marcus Rashford (39) and they all made the Ballon d'Or shortlist. Even those immediately below him on that particular ranking - Lautaro Martinez, Kevin De Bruyne, Harry Kane and Karim Benzema - were included. So, why was Rashford overlooked?

The Manchester United forward took his game to a whole other level under Ten Hag, scoring 30 goals in total and registering nine assists, while he also shone nearly every single time he set foot on the field for England at the World Cup, netting three times at the tournament.

Randal Kolo Muani had a fine season for Eintracht Frankfurt and secured himself a deserved move to Paris Saint-Germain during the summer, but one would be hard pressed to argue that he warranted a Ballon d'Or nomination over Rashford.

John Stones had his injury issues last season - so perhaps a lack of games counted him against him. But when it came to the crunch, Stones was easily one of Manchester City's five most important players during their treble push.

In fact, one could even legitimately ask whether the Etihad outfit would have swept all before them had Pep Guardiola not ingeniously decided to push the England centre-back into midfield during the 2022-23 campaign.

Stones was particularly impressive in the Champions League, drawing giddy comparisons to Franz Beckenbauer for the ease with which he stepped out of deep positions with the ball at his feet.

So, given the 29-year-old's massive contribution to such a historic triumph, it's genuinely surprising that Josko Gvardiol, for example, made the Ballon d'Or shortlist ahead of him.

A surprise snub of a different nature. Given Jack Grealish's popularity in the press and among both Manchester City and England fans, there was a noticeable and concerted media push to portray the jovial winger as one of last season's success stories - when, in reality, he was anything but.

Was Grealish better in his second season at Manchester City than his first? Absolutely, but that wouldn't have been hard. The £100 million ($125m) signing from Aston Villa was rubbish during the 2021-22 campaign, as he admitted himself.

However, for all the talk of a remarkable revival, Grealish was directly involved in just 16 goals during City's treble-winning campaign - for context, 12 fewer than Riyad Mahrez - and didn't step up in any of their most important games during the run-in.

Credit where it's due, Grealish admitted he was "awful" in the Champions League final and, for all their faults, France Football deserve some praise for not buying into the narrative that Grealish has proven himself a top talent. He's still not remotely close to being one of the 30 best players in the world.

In a way, Neymar's name was supposed to have been on that shortlist. He's the man who should have been king, the apparent heir to Lionel Messi's throne - both at Barcelona and as the best player on the planet. Instead, he threw it all away by joining Paris Saint-Germain and is now sitting on the sidelines in Saudi Arabia, counting his cash but surely wondering how he's managed to make such a mess of a career.

Indeed, the saddest thing you can say about Neymar being left off this year's nominees is that it was utterly unsurprising. His 2022-23 campaign was another sorry tale of injuries on the field and issues off it, meaning Paris Saint-Germain were only too happy to sell him to Al-Hilal during the summer. The fact that their new coach, Luis Enrique, who had won a treble with Neymar at Barca, wanted nothing to do with the attacker was just so depressingly telling.

Neymar is genuinely one of the most talented players ever to play the game and we saw flashes of his genius at Qatar 2022. With that kind of natural ability, he could have won several Ballons d'Or. But it's now clear that he'll never even lift one.

Cristiano Ronaldo has been banging in the goals since arriving in Saudi Arabia in Saudi Arabia - but who actually cares? Not France Football, that's for sure. Ronaldo has failed to earn a Ballon d'Or nomination for the first time since 2003 and he can't really complain (even though he definitely will).

Erik ten Hag quickly realised after taking over at Manchester United that his team was far better without Ronaldo in the starting line-up, and Portugal boss Fernando Santos reached the same conclusion in Qatar.

The net result was that the striker's World Cup campaign ended in pretty much the same fashion as his legacy-tarnishing second stint at Old Trafford - with Ronaldo petulantly storming down a stadium tunnel.

Ronaldo is, of course, a freak of nature. It would be risky to write him off even at the age of 38 but unless he fires Portugal to victory at Euro 2024, it seems highly unlikely he'll ever get close to matching Messi's record of seven Ballons d'Or now he's now playing his club football in such a weak league.