France Football unveiled a 30-man shortlist for 2026 Ballon d'Or and not a single Borussia Dortmund player made the cut. Not that we were expecting, but it's still disappointing as fans.
Following a frustrating 2025-26 campaign that ended trophyless, the BVB's best bet for a nomination was striker Serhou Guirassy once again.
The Guinean ace bagged 22 goals in all competitions for Die Borussen last term for another productive campaign, though it was still a massive decline from his first season.
After signing from VfB Stuttgart in 2024, Guirassy went hell for leather, netting 38 times. His prolific tally included a Golden Boot-winning 13 in the UEFA Champions League too.
It also earned him a Ballon d'Or nomination, though he ultimately finished in 21st place with a meager 25 votes.
This year however, even Guirassy failed to make the cut, which is astonishing considering many of the players on the list scored fewer goals than him.
Ferran Torres netted 21 times for FC Barcelona in 2025-26 season whereas Jude Bellingham scored only eight goals; Khvicha Kvaratskhelia weighed in with 19 for PSG, just to name a few.
However, each of these players have either a silverware or World Cup performances to back their claim: Torres scored the decisive goal for Spain in the finals against Argentina that won them the World Cup after lifting the LaLiga and Copa del Rey titles with the Blaugrana in the 2025-26 season; Bellingham was instrumental in guiding England to a silver medal with seven goals, while Kvaratskhelia was among the stars of PSG's second consecutive Champions League trophy.
Guirassy neither won a trophy nor featured at the World Cup, with Guinea falling short in the qualifiers.
However, there's one category where a Dortmund player could pick a trophy in next month's ceremony, and that's the 2026 Yashin Trophy, the award for the best goalkeeper of the year.
Dortmund's talismanic custodian Gregor Kobel has been nominated yet again. It's the second time he's been in contention for the prize, having previously earned a nomination in 2024.
He registered the most clean sheets in the Bundesliga last season with 15, and was a part of Switzerland's squad that made a historic quarter-final appearance at the World Cup too, conceding just four goals in six games and making 20 saves (fifth highest in the tournament).
But this too, appears difficult considering the other names in the hat, such as Spain's World Cup-winning star Unai Simon, World Cup-finalist Argentine Emiliano Martinez, Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois and Arsenal's David Raya among others.
Add us as a preferred source on Google