24. Jamie Vardy
Five years ago, several of this year’s list of nominees would be easy to predict. We knew Messi and Ronaldo would be here. We knew the likes of Gareth Bale and Thomas Muller would grow into super-stardom. But Jamie Vardy? No one could’ve predicted his meteoric rise.
His story is known. From part-time, non-league player to top scorer on the 5,000 to 1 champions Leicester City, no part of the Foxes’ title-winning season of last year is quite as enticing as Vardy’s.
A year after scoring just enough goals to help Leicester avoid relegation, Vardy erupted for 24 league goals, including a scintillating 11-match scoring streak.
If anything about a player like Vardy can be underrated at this point, it’s his international career. He scored four goals for England in 2016, despite not coming into the national team until age 28. He even netted a goal at the Euros, in which he was one of the few England players not to disappoint.
While Vardy and the Foxes will be hard-pressed to live up to last season’s form. He’s become a well-established star in the EPL and his Ballon d’Or nomination further proves that.