Rodman, Smith, Swanson among Ballon d'Or noms

Five United States women’s national team players are nominated for the 2024 Women’s Ballon d’Or, an annual award presented by France Football magazine.

Captain and midfielder Lindsey Horan, goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and forwards Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson were all nominated for the award Wednesday, a few weeks after helping the U.S. win the 2024 Olympic gold medal.

The U.S. co-leads representation on the 30-player shortlist alongside 2023 World Cup champion Spain, which also has five players on the list.

USWNT head coach Emma Hayes, who took charge of the team just over two months before its Olympic triumph, is nominated for Women’s Coach of the Year.

Four of the five USWNT players also play domestically in the National Women’s Soccer League (Horan plays for Lyon in France). The NWSL is further represented by Orlando Pride and Zambian forward Barbra Banda, who ranks second in the league in scoring in her first NWSL season.

NJ/NY Gotham FC is also nominated Women’s Club of the Year after winning the 2023 NWSL Championship.

Rodman, Smith and Swanson accounted for 10 of the USWNT’s 12 goals at the Olympics. They each scored a game winner in three successive 1-0 victories in the knockout stage on the team’s journey to its first Olympic gold medal since 2012. The trio dubbed themselves “Triple Espresso” during the tournament.

Rodman is the only player to have appeared in every USWNT match since the start of 2023. Smith was a finalist for the 2023 NWSL MVP Award.

Naeher, who made crucial late-game saves in the extra-time semifinal victory over Germany, and the gold medal win over Brazil, is the only goalkeeper on the 30-player list.

Horan started all six matches for the USWNT at the Olympics and played every minute of regulation, missing only extra time of the semifinal after being subbed off.

USWNT and San Diego Wave FC center back Naomi Girma, whom Hayes called “the best defender I’ve ever seen,” during the Olympics, did not make the 30-player list.

Aitana Bonmatí, Mariona Caldentey, Patricia Guijarro, Salma Paralluelo and Alexia Putellas are the five Spanish players nominated for the award. Spain finished fourth at the Olympics, one year after winning the World Cup. The award has gone to Spanish players in each of the past three years, twice to Putellas and last year to Bonmatí.

England, which was beaten by Spain in the 2023 World Cup final, has three nominees — Lauren Hemp, Lauren James and Lucy Bronze.

The Ballon d’Or is a prestigious award in the men’s game, having honored the top player in the world since 1956. The award briefly merged with FIFA’s World Player of the Year award in 2010 but returned to being independent in 2016.

A Women’s Ballon d’Or was first awarded in 2018. Norway and Lyon forward Ada Hegerberg won the inaugural award before infamously being asked if she could twerk by the event’s host, French DJ Martin Solveig.

USWNT winger Megan Rapinoe won the award the following year, after collecting the Golden Ball and Golden Boot at the 2019 World Cup, which the Americans won. No American has made the top three since.