N’Golo Kante has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or following his exceptional first season at Stamford Bridge.

kante was one of the first five names revealed for the prestigious award, which was aligned with FIFA from 2010 to 2015. It is judged solely by a panel of journalists and is run by France Football magazine. The remaining names on the 30-man list will be released over the course of today.

Kante played a crucial part in our title triumph last season having joined from Leicester. His performances were recognised with individual awards as he was named the PFA Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year, as well as the Chelsea Players’ Player of the Year.

No one has won the Ballon d’Or award as a Chelsea player, but former Blues Andriy Shevchenko (2004), George Weah (1995) and Ruud Gullit (1987) were all winners while with AC Milan.

Frank Lampard has the best showing by a player while at Chelsea. He finished second in 2005. Drogba was fourth in the 2007 awards. The award was initiated in 1956 when Stanley Matthews was the first winner.

The shortlist so far

Neymar (PSG)

Luka Modric (Real Madrid)

Paulo Dybala (Juventus)

Marcelo (Real Madrid)

N’Golo Kante (Chelsea)

Luis Suarez (Barcelona)

Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)

Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)

Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid)

Dries Mertens (Napoli)