Ballon d’Or 2021 LIVE as Lionel Messi beats Robert Lewandowski and Jorginho for award

Kylian Mbappe and his dad! Didier Drogba with his sons! Lionel Messi with his entire family!

The past, present and future of many, many goals at the elite end of world football right here.

And the favourite arrives!

Lionel Messi is hoping to win his seventh Ballon d’Or tonight, which is utterly absurd levels of career-long consistency. In his corner, of course, is a certain Copa America win over the summer, a massive achievement he and the entire nation had waited a long time for at senior level.

Kylian Mbappe: Left-handed. There you go. The same youngster just got the forward’s signature for free; suspect any clubs hoping to do the same in the summer will actually find it costs them rather more over the long term.

Might get them a few goals, though.

From the last post, at the top we had Robert Lewandowski (with karate medallist Anna Lewandowska); below was Fabio Cannavaro; then AS Monaco president Dmitry Rybolovlev; Didier Drogba (with fellow presenter tonight Sandy Heribert); then finally the Bayern Munich trio of Oliver Kahn, Julian Nagelsmann and Hasan Salihamidzic.

Can confirm Luis Suarez did not tackle anybody or win any penalties on his way in.

Spiderman duo Zendaya and Tom Holland, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a French comedian and a man flourishing his cape - just some of the non-football related sights on the red carpet at the start of tonight. Tremendous.

Which current players and other football faces can you name from this crop? Answers in our next post - one is pretty easy, to be fair...

Robert Lewandowski here stealing the show by signing a football for a kid carrying a Messi jersey. Levels to that kind of mind-games.

Right, let’s get this in order: there are several things we don’t know about tonight.

First, here’s what will be revealed in the main event:

• Ballon d’Or top 10 and winner
• Ballon d’Or Feminine winner
• Kopa Trophy and Yashin Trophy winners
• Two new awards and (presumably) inaugural winners

Now, what about the things we aren’t entirely sure of:

• Whether a countdown is coming of the Women’s shortlist or just the winner
• Same, but for Kopa and Yashin
• What the two new awards are - though reports suggest they are ‘Club of the Year’ and ‘Striker of the Year’

Stars both past and present of the game! Lieke Martens is hoping to land the Ballon d’Or Feminine, while Fabio Cannavaro was the 2006 winner after claiming the World Cup with Italy that year.

Oh look, our first images of the night are starting to drop: the players arriving who are on the shortlist, the dignitaries who are representing different clubs...and, of course, the main prize on offer, the Ballon d’Or itself. Here’s Denmark’s Simon Kjaer, who came 18th, and Emilio Butragueno, Real Madrid’s sporting director.

And the ole’ gold ball that 10 players are still hoping to win.

Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t holding back. He’s just posted this - France Football’s Pascal Ferre recently hit headlines by claiming Cristiano had told him that his “only ambition” was to “retire with more Ballon d’Or [wins] than Messi”.

Man United’s forward says Ferre has lied and used the Portuguese attacker’s name to promote himself and his publication, and says he always wants to congratulate those who win within sportsmanship and fair play and that his own ambitions are to win national and international titles for his club and country. More to come on that, no doubt.