France Football have released the list of twenty nominees in contention for this year's Ballon D'Or Féminin, an annual award to recognize the best women's footballer in the world.  

It is the third time that the Ballon D'Or Féminin has been handed out after its creation in 2018.  No award was handed out last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  So far the recipients have been Norway's Ada Hegerberg in 2018 and the United States' Megan Rapinoe in 2019.  

It is the third time that Sam Kerr has been nominated for the award.  In 2018 she finished fifth in the rankings while in 2019 she was voted seventh on the list.  She is the only Australian woman to date to be nominated.

Kerr is also one of four players, alongside Wendi Renard of France, Lieke Martens of the Netherlands and Pernille Harder of Denmark to have always been nominated since the women's award was created. 

Harder is one of four of Kerr's Chelsea FC teammates up for nomination.  Kerr's other Chelsea teammates in contention for this year's Ballon D'Or are England's Fran Kirby, Canada's Jessie Fleming and Sweden's Magdalena Eriksson. 

Kerr finished the 2020-21 season as the FA Women's Super League top scorer, finding the back of the net 21 times.  She also finished seventh in the league for assists.  In total she scored 27 goals in all competitions.  

The Matildas captain also led Australia to its highest ever finish at a major competition, reaching the Bronze medal match at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  

The Ballon D'Or's multiple awards will be handed out at a gala event at the Chatelet Théatre in Paris on November 29, 2021.