The 2014-15 season will come to an end this weekend with the Champions League final. The summer festivities will then get underway with the Copa America and Euro Cup qualifiers.

The Ballon d'Or conversations will also get underway as a means of seeing which players have emerged at the halfway mark of the year. Here is an early preview with the nominees less than six months away from being announced.

Lionel Messi

Unless he suffers a catastrophic injury or Cristiano Ronaldo has a tremendous finish (a possibility), Messi has the trophy in the bag and should own his record fifth Ballon d'Or.

Here is the rundown for Messi in 2015.

He has scored a whopping 35 goals in 34 games. Throw in his 17 assists and the Argentine has been involved in 1.5 goals per game.

He has already claimed two trophies including the Copa del Rey and Spanish League title. If he wins the Champions League he will have claimed the second treble of his career. Last time he managed that feat he took the award as well.

If he claims the Copa America this summer in Chile, also a possibility given his form and the team around him, then he could be benched the rest of 2015 and still win the trophy. That is how good Messi's start of the year has been. If he continues on his current form, he might even challenge the 91 goals he scored in 2012.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Not to be ignored, the Portuguese star has scored 29 goals and 10 assists in 30 matches this year, involving him in 1.3 goals per game. Still a nice number and certainly deserved from the current Ballon d'Or winner.

However, Ronaldo is going to need a monstrous finish to his year to overcome what his rival has already done. He has no trophies this season and will not get a chance to win any. He might have to bank on a Messi injury coupled with a heroic display similar to 2013 when he won the trophy despite taking home no team awards. That year he put up 69 goals in a single year. He will not have the luxury of a tournament this summer so he will likely have to score at a similar pace to the start of the 2014-15 season in order to match that output. Even then, he might be faced with Messi already running away with the goal-scoring race considering his form.

Neymar

The Brazilian has had a fine year to date, scoring goals in big moments for Barcelona, including the game winner of the Copa del Rey this past weekend. He just finished the season with a whopping 39 goals in all competitions and could complete his first 40-goal campaign in Europe if he scores in the Champions League final.

That is impressive in and of itself but what could really put Neymar over the edge in this competition is winning the Copa America this summer. Brazil is arguably the best team in the tournament on current form and Neymar will be vital to its success. If he manages to get the team to the trophy, he will have one more trophy than his teammate Messi, putting him in the driver's seat for potentially claiming his first ever Ballon d'Or.

Those players would be your favorites as of today. The German players that were so dominant on the short list last season have no World Cup or even major domestic trophies to bank on.

Luis Suarez could put himself in the conversation based on his current form but the Copa America absence will hurt him. Arturo Vidal could make a claim if he wins the Champions League and Copa America, but the voters generally go with high-end goal scorers, putting him out of the conversation for now. Alexis Sanchez could also figure into talks if he wins the Copa America.

James Rodriguez could also put his name in the hat with a Copa America win though he lacks any other trophies in 2015.

Who do you think are the major contenders for this year's Ballon d'Or?