Ballon d'Or 2017: Award Ceremony Date, TV Schedule, Live Stream, Finalists

Kaka was the last player other than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to take home the Ballon d'Or, and the Brazilian playmaker won the coveted awarded way back in 2007.

For the last decade Messi and Ronaldo have monopolised the award, and it would be a huge surprise were that trend not to continue when the 2017 Ballon d'Or is handed out on Thursday in Paris.

Real Madrid's Ronaldo is the front-runner to win football's most coveted individual prize for the second year running after leading Los Blancos to La Liga and UEFA Champions League glory in the 2016-17 campaign.

However, Messi's phenomenal form for Barcelona in the first part of the 2017-18 campaign, along with Ronaldo's relatively slow start, could tip the scales in the Argentinian's favour. 

Neymar is third favourite to claim the gong, while Juventus' veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and Tottenham Hotspur forward Harry Kane are also among the 30 nominees:

Here are the full details for Thursday's ceremony in the French capital:

Date: Thursday, Dec. 7 

Start Time: 6:45 p.m. GMT, 1:45 p.m. ET, 7:45 p.m. local 

TV and Live Stream: Only available in France on L'Equipe and lequipe.fr

Messi is the only five-time winner of the Ballon d'Or, but he will be joined by Ronaldo in the record books if the Portuguese star claims the 2017 award.

Despite being an individual award the Ballon d'Or often seems to be decided based on how many signifcant trophies respective players' teams have won in the preceding season.

On that front, Ronaldo is the obvious choice. 

Messi has enjoyed a phenomenal 2017 individually, continuing to be the beating heart of Barcelona's attack—never more so than in 2017-18 following Neymar's departure—and returning a remarkable number of goals:

But the Blaugrana have claimed just the Copa del Rey during the last year, finishing second to Real in La Liga and falling at the quarter-final stage in the 2016-17 Champions League.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, has played a key role in Real's four trophy wins in 2017—they also won the Spanish Super Cup and UEFA Super Cup—and could add another before the year is out with Los Blancos favourites to win the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup.

The Madrid outfit broke new ground in 2017 as they became the first side to successfully defend the Champions League title.

Ronaldo netted twice in a 4-1 victory over Juventus in the final to take his tally for the knockout rounds to 10, which included key hat-tricks against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid.

Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images

The former Manchester United man was pivotal in seeing Real to a third Champions League title in four seasons, while he top scored for the club as they won their first La Liga title in five years. 

Ronaldo's return of 25 goals in the Spanish top flight in 2016-17 is significantly less than the 37 Messi netted for Barca, and the Portugal international has scored only two to his Barcelona counterpart's 13 so far in the current campaign.

However, the fact that Ronaldo and Real took home the lion's share of the key silverware in 2017, and Messi's Barcelona largely came off second best, means it is the Portuguese star who is likely to be crowned Ballon d'Or winner again this year.