5 shocking omissions from the 2017 Ballon d'Or shortlist

2) Sergio Aguero (Manchester City and Argentina)

Sergio Aguero carried Manchester City to the Champions League last season

When Pep Guardiola took over Manchester City last season, few expected the Catalan manager to bench the second-highest active goalscorer in the Premier League (after Wayne Rooney).

Sergio Aguero had won the Premier League Golden Boot in 2014/15 and had missed out by a whisker the following year. In 2016/17, he had managed only 20 league goals due to the fewer minutes afforded to him by Guardiola but most of them came in this calendar year following an injury to new signing Gabriel Jesus.

Guardiola qualified for the Champions League mainly because of Aguero's heroics. Despite being "second-choice", the Argentine striker scored 33 goals in all competitions. The next best in the City squad was 10 from Raheem Sterling.

110 - Sergio Aguero has the best minutes per goal rate of any Premier League player in history (min 15 goals). Citizen. pic.twitter.com/qBSBqoXjSv

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 30, 2017

And he's already on the hunt for the Golden Boot this season with six goals in the league which came at a better minutes-per-goal ratio than Romelu Lukaku, Alvaro Morata, and Harry Kane.

Compared to Aguero, Karim Benzema had his worst season in a Real Madrid shirt since his debut season at the Bernabeu and still managed to get a nomination because the team won the La Liga and Champions League double.