Messi and Ronaldo have shared the award between them every year since 2008, and the Argentine is the bookmakers’ favourite to deny his rival three in a row.
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It marks the eighth successive year that Real Madrid’s Ronaldo and Barcelona’s Messi have been on the shortlist.
Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets has played down the importance of the Ballon d’Or as “I care more about the praise from my Coaches and teammates”.
Ronaldo (45), Lionel Messi (44) and Neymar (41) have scored more goals all competitions in 2015 than any other player in Europe’s top 5 leagues.
Though Barcelona’s Neymar leads La Liga in scoring with 14 goals, he is considered the outlier to take home the award.
The Ballon d’Or victor will be announced at the annual ceremony in Zurich in January.
He has managed nine in 13 appearances in 2015-16 after missing almost two months of action with a knee injury sustained against Las Palmas in September.
And Messi’s team-mate Neymar hopes to be on the three-man shortlist.
Lionel Messi, as suspected was among the three nominations after leading the Blaugranes to a historic treble of the UEFA Champions League, La Liga and Copa Del Rey last season.
Yet on his present scintillating form, Brazilian Neymar, Messi’s partner in destruction along with Luis Suarez at Barca, has a claim on being the equal of either of them.
Neymar has said that he and his fellow attackers in Barcelona, deserve to be among the finalists for this year’s Ballon d’Or.
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The women’s nominees for their respective prize are the USA’s Carli Lloyd, Japan’s Aya Miyama and Germany’s Celia Sasic.
