Sam Kerr has come third in the voting for the Ballon D’Or, which was won for the second year in succession by Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas.
The Matildas captain and Chelsea forward emulated her achievement of last year, when she was also finished third in the chase for football’s most-prestigious individual award.
The men’s version of the award was won by Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema.
Putellas was injured on the eve of this year’s European Championships and has not played since June but her form last season was enough to secure her first place ahead of England’s Beth Mead, who topped the Euros scoring charts.
The Spaniard scored 42 goals and delivered 22 assists in 2021/22 as Barcelona won the Spanish League and reached the final of the Champions League, in which they lost to Lyon.
Kerr was the only Australian in the top 20.
“I am very happy to be back here. Winning last year’s prize pushed me to get even better,” Putellas said on collecting the trophy at a gala ceremony in Paris.
“Injuring my knee in July, I did not think it would be possible (to win this award).”
Created by the prestigious France Football magazine, the Ballon d’Or is voted on by a panel of journalists from around the world.
It has been presented to men every year since 1956, when it was won by England’s Stanley Matthews won.
The women’s trophy has been awarded since 2018.
Benzema – who scored 44 goals as he guided Real Madrid to a La Liga and Champions League double – finished ahead of Robert Lewandowski, Sadio Mane and Kevin de Bruyne.
Winning in the year of his 10th nomination, he became the first French player to collect the coveted trophy since Zinedine Zidane in 1998.
“This prize in front of me makes me really proud,” he said at the ceremony.
“When I was small, it was a childhood dream, I never gave up. Anything is possible.”
The Kopa Trophy for the best under-21 player went to 18-year-old Barcelona midfielder Gavi, while Lewandowski won the Gerd Muller award for the best striker of the year.
The Lev Yashin award for best goalkeeper went to Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois.
A new humanitarian prize, named after the late Brazil midfielder Socrates, went to Bayern Munich’s former Liverpool forward Mane for his charity work in Senegal. This includes building a hospital and school donations.
With AP
