De Gea nominated for Ballon d'Or award
David De Gea has been rewarded for another excellent year at Manchester United with a place on the 2017 Ballon d'Or shortlist.
The Spain no.1 has enjoyed a terrific 12 months for club and country, with the latter culminating last week in qualifying for the World Cup finals; De Gea kept yet another clean sheet as his national team beat Albania.
Universally acknowledged as one of the best goalkeepers on the planet, it is perhaps surprising that De Gea hadn't previously been shortlisted for the Ballon d'Or. That unwanted duck was broken on Monday when he was confirmed as one of the players in contention for this year's prize, presented by France Football.
De Gea: 100 clean sheets
To celebrate De Gea's 100th clean sheet with United, we've collated our favourite #DaveSaves.
While De Gea is the Reds' sole representative on the 30-man shortlist, former United star and 2016 Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo is the favourite to win the award again, ahead of his great rival Lionel Messi.
The Real Madrid and Barcelona icons have battled for the honour over the past nine seasons, with Messi lifting it five times to Ronaldo's four so far.
The first of Cristiano's awards came while he was at United in 2008, which made him the fourth Red to win it after Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Leonardo Bonucci (AC Milan), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Edinson Cavani (Paris St-Germain) Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool), Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City), David de Gea (Manchester United), Paulo Dybala (Juventus), Edin Dzeko (Roma), Radamel Falcao (Monaco), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich), Isco (Real Madrid), Harry Kane (Tottenham), N'Golo Kante (Chelsea), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain), Dries Mertens (Napoli), Lionel Messi (Barcelona) Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Neymar (Paris St-Germain), Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Luis Suarez (Barcelona).