{"id":45029,"date":"2026-09-09T13:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T11:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45029"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T11:06:15","slug":"african-footballers-feature-prominently-on-2026-ballon-dor-shortlist","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/african-footballers-feature-prominently-on-2026-ballon-dor-shortlist\/","title":{"rendered":"African footballers feature prominently on 2026 Ballon d&#8217;Or shortlist \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Several prominent African footballers have been nominated for the 2026 Ballon d&#8217;Or awards, with players representing Morocco, Senegal, Cape Verde, C\u00f4te d&#8217;Ivoire, and Algeria featuring across multiple categories.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The continent is represented across the Men&#8217;s Young Talent of the Year and Men&#8217;s Goalkeeper of the Year shortlists. Morocco&#8217;s Ayyoub Bouaddi, C\u00f4te d&#8217;Ivoire&#8217;s Yan Diomand\u00e9, and Algeria&#8217;s Ibrahim Maza earned nominations for the Young Talent award, while goalkeepers Yassine Bounou of Morocco, \u00c9douard Mendy of Senegal, and Vozinha of Cape Verde were named in the Goalkeeper of the Year category.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The nominations reflect the continued influence and high-level performances of African players in major global leagues and international competitions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 Ballon d&#8217;Or ceremony will take place at the London Palladium Theatre on October 26, marking the 70th anniversary of the awards and the first time the event has been hosted outside Paris.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":45030,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-45029","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"African talent earns nominations for 2026 Ballon d'Or Awards","published_date":"2026-09-09 13:06:06","news_description":"African talent earns nominations for 2026 Ballon d'Or Awards","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45031,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45029\/revisions\/45031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}