Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo and his Real Madrid team-mate Gareth Bale have been named among the shortlisted candidates for this year's coveted Ballon d'Or award.
Ronaldo, who won the Ballon d'Or title in 2008, 2013 and 2014, is front-runner for this year's award after inspiring Real Madrid to the Champions League glory and Portugal to Euro 2016 trophy,goal.com reported.
The Real Madrid pair has joined Manchester City's Sergio Aguero, Borussia Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon as the first names to be revealed on the 30-man shortlist.
Besides them, Kevin De Bruyne, Antoine Griezmann , Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain and Diego Godin are being named in the second set of nominees.
The names of the rest of the players are scheduled to be announced later today.
The prestigious individual prize will be judged solely by a panel of journalists after FIFA World Player of the Year award and Ballon d'Or ended their partnership this year.
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