The Senegal winger, now effectively the supporting act to Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, has found a place on the 2026 Ballon d’Or shortlist.

Sadio Mane was once a superb footballer. That wording matters — because a world in which the Senegal winger, now little more than Cristiano Ronaldo’s sidekick in the Saudi Pro League, gets into the Ballon d’Or 30-man shortlist is not one that can be taken seriously.

Yes, Mane won the Africa Cup of Nations in January this year. Or rather, he did until Senegal’s title was stripped and later handed to Morocco following a court ruling delivered months afterwards. Even so, is that really enough?

Does the Ballon d’Or really expect supporters to accept that a disappointing World Cup, a 10-goal Saudi Pro League campaign, and an AFCON triumph that no longer stands should be sufficient for his inclusion, in 2026 of all years, among the world’s top 30 players?

Yes, Mane did win AFCON’s Player of the Tournament award — that honour was not taken away from him. And he earned it with two soft assists in a Round of 16 meeting with Sudan, both created largely by the excellent work of Papa Gueye and Ibrahim Mbaye, along with one outstanding goal against Egypt in the semi-final.

That is essentially where his case for a place in the Ballon d’Or 30-man shortlist begins and ends. The 34-year-old was given Player of the Tournament not because his performances were impossible to ignore, but because he is Sadio Mane.

It should be said that Mane is not the only questionable inclusion in the Ballon d’Or 30-player shortlist. Julian Quinones and Dayot Upemecano, for instance, are two names that also appear thoroughly undeserving of being anywhere near France Football’s prize.

But Mane’s inclusion feels especially outrageous because it highlights the absurd criteria used to decide which players are nominated for, and sometimes even go on to win, the award. To begin with, why is the Ballon d’Or so fixated on international trophies?

Why is it that winners of international tournaments — in this case Mane with AFCON — are treated as automatically more worthy of a place in the 30-man shortlist, or a higher ranking in France Football’s standings, than players who were exceptional for their clubs?

That point was obvious back in 2018, when Lionel Messi, with 48 goal involvements, and Mohamed Salah, with 60 contributions, finished only fifth and sixth respectively in France Football’s rankings.

That was the year Luka Modric somehow walked away with the Ballon d’Or largely because he had won the Golden Ball at the World Cup. Antoine Griezmann, meanwhile, ended up in third place.

This so-called trophy logic is hopelessly inconsistent. As many of Messi’s strongest critics have noted, he won the 2019 Ballon d’Or with only a LaLiga title, yet later his single World Cup triumph, along with a Ligue 1 title that Paris Saint-Germain almost always win, was considered enough to put him ahead of treble-winning Erling Haaland in 2023.

The same trend appeared again when Rodri claimed the 2024 award, driven very clearly by Spain’s European Championship success, while treble-winning Vinicius Junior missed out.

Then, one year later, winning the treble suddenly became enough for Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele. He took home the prize despite Salah and Raphinha clearly producing better individual seasons and also winning their domestic league titles in more demanding circumstances.

Salah broke the Premier League record for goal involvements and won what is widely regarded as Europe’s most competitive top-flight title, all without a single one of his team-mates making France Football’s 30-man shortlist.

Raphinha, meanwhile, amassed an extraordinary 21 Champions League goal contributions in only 14 matches, and was involved in three goals against Inter Milan even as his side conceded seven in a 7-6 aggregate defeat.

Elsewhere, Dembele played only 1,736 minutes in Ligue 1 — the equivalent of just 19 games.

For an award that is supposed to recognise the individual, it increasingly appears that individual performance is considered last, club trophies second, and international silverware first. That is ridiculous.

Mane is simply the latest player to benefit from that flawed approach. He had an ordinary season at club level with Al-Nassr, scoring only 10 goals on the way to the Saudi Pro League title, and then delivered an average World Cup in which Senegal fell in embarrassing fashion to a historic Belgium comeback — all of which has apparently been outweighed by an AFCON trophy that was later removed from him.

And, after all, he did stay on the pitch against Morocco and appeal to his Senegal team-mates to come back after they had walked off. Perhaps that earned him some ‘fair play’ points, did it, France Football?