Khvicha Kvaratskhelia the sole 2026 Ballon d’Or nominee to miss World Cup

For the first time since 2006, only one player on the Ballon d’Or shortlist has not appeared at the most recent World Cup. That player is Georgia forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who stands out among the 30 nominees despite Georgia’s failure to qualify for the 2026 tournament.

Kvaratskhelia, who has been named the best player in the UEFA Champions League, is the only candidate on this year’s list to have missed the World Cup. The unusual distinction echoes the situation involving Cameroon great Samuel Eto’o 20 years ago.

According to French newspaper L’Equipe, the 2026 shortlist represents a rare return to a pattern that has occurred only once before in the modern history of the award. The absence of one player from a World Cup-winning or competing generation is unusual, although it is not entirely unprecedented.

In 2023, seven of the 30 Ballon d’Or nominees had not played at the World Cup in Qatar. Kvaratskhelia was among them, alongside Karim Benzema, who missed the tournament because of injury.

The other five players were Victor Osimhen, Mohamed Salah, Nicolo Barella, Martin Ødegaard and Erling Haaland. Their national teams had failed to qualify for the competition.

Haaland nevertheless finished second in the Ballon d’Or voting behind Lionel Messi. The Norway striker was rewarded after helping Manchester City complete a historic treble, winning the UEFA Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.

The number of nominees who had missed the World Cup was even lower in 2018. Only three players on that year’s shortlist were absent from the tournament in Russia.

Benzema was not included in France’s squad, despite his country going on to win the World Cup. Wales forward Gareth Bale and Slovenia goalkeeper Jan Oblak, of Atletico de Madrid, were left out because their national teams did not qualify.

In 2014, when France Football and world governing body FIFA jointly administered the award, the shortlist contained 23 players. Only two nominees had missed the World Cup in Brazil because their countries failed to reach the finals: Bale and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The 2010 edition was the only one in the comparison in which every one of the 23 nominees had taken part in the World Cup in South Africa.

To find the last example of a shortlist containing just one player who had not appeared at the World Cup, it is necessary to go back to 2006. That year, the Ballon d’Or list was made up of 50 players, and Eto’o was the only nominee to receive votes despite missing the tournament.

Eto’o’s omission came after an outstanding season with Barcelona. He won both La Liga and the UEFA Champions League, finished as the Spanish top flight’s leading scorer with 26 goals and scored in the European final against Arsenal.

Cameroon’s failure to qualify for the World Cup in Germany was therefore offset by Eto’o’s club achievements. He eventually finished sixth in the Ballon d’Or voting, behind five players who had played at the tournament.

His Barcelona team-mate Ronaldinho led that group and had also received the award for Europe’s best player at the time.