10 Players You Forgot Were Nominated For Ballon d'Or

8. Ji-Sung Park (Manchester United) - 2005

It seems alien for a player who spent much of his time at a big club patiently waiting in the wings to make his mark to have ever been considered for a Ballon d€™Or. At Manchester United, Ji-Sung Park was the consummate professional - on average he might play 20 games a season, rarely seeing the light of day for months from the Old Trafford dug-out to suddenly being thrust into action for the back-end of the Champions League and crunch fixtures with Arsenal. Thrown in to do a job here and there, the South Korean winger was never going to be afforded the consistent run of games to emulate the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford, but he knew that.

''I remember him as a big-game player. When the big games came around, against the big Champions League sides, he always stepped up to the plate. He was a great team-mate and a real humble lad in the dressing-room. He just went about his job diligently. For such a big star in Asia - and he really is a superstar there - he never acted that way at all. I'd say he was an underrated player, too. He would sacrifice himself for the greater good of the team.'' - Darren Fletcher, July 2014.

At PSV Eindhoven, however, the South Korean was the star of the side. During the 04/05 season, Park was a scintillating demon on the wing for the Dutch side, a thorn in the side of many a European great who dared to knock the plucky hopefuls off their stride in the Champions League. He would score eleven goals that season, including a strike which nearly knocked AC Milan out in the semi-finals. Ultimately, while the South Korean€™s performances elevated him into the Ballon d€™Or shortlist, they weren€™t deemed worthy enough to bag him the prize, or indeed a single vote. Ronaldinho would go on to lift the award instead.