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Ballon d'Or Shortlist Announced

JamesTheYiddo

Well-Known Member
Oct 25, 2006
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Francesco Totti has been named as a potential winner of the Ballon d'Or prize, also known as the World Footballer of the Year award. Having been left out of the nominations for FIFA's equivalent trophy, the Roma striker will be pleased with his inclusion here...

France Football have announced their shortlist of 50 candidates for the Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) trophy.

This prestigious award signifies the World Footballer of the Year, given to the a winner who is judged by a panel of footballing journalists to be the best of all those playing in global football today.

Up until this season, it was named the European Footballer of the Year award, open only to those plying their trade with UEFA clubs.

But while the award was given for footballers in Europe, since 1995 the victor needed not be European himself; past winners include Brazilian pair Ronaldinho and Ronaldo, and many feel that AC Milan's Kaka will become the third Seleção star to lift the distinctive prize.

Italian ace Fabio Cannavaro (pictured) currently holds the trophy, having been awarded the title last December after winning the World Cup with Italy, and putting in solid displays for Juventus and Real Madrid. Gigi Buffon was second and Thierry Henry third.

Each voting journalist is allowed to select five names from the fifty-man shortlist, giving their first pick five points, their second four, and so on down to a single point. Whichever player gains the higher number of points wins the prize.

Cannavaro managed 173 points last season to Buffon's 124, while the biggest ever winner was Zinedine Zidane, who picked up an astonishing 244 points back in 1998.

Even if Kaka is favourite this year, there are a number of notable inclusions. Francesco Totti has been named as a candidate despite being overlooked for FIFA's World Player of the Year award, while evergreens such as Gigi Buffon and Filippo Inzaghi are joined by the likes of young Francesc Fabregas, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

Here are the potential candidates, listed in alphabetical order:

Eric Abidal (Barcelona), France.
Daniel Alves (Sevilla), Brasil.
David Beckham (LA Galaxy), England.
Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham), Bulgaria.
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Italy.
Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Italy.
Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Spain.
Petr Cech (Chelsea), Czech Republic.
Rogerio Ceni (San Paolo), Brasil.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Portugal.
Deco (Barcelona), Portugal.
Mahamadou Diarra (Real Madrid), Mali.
Diego (Werder Bremen), Brasil.
Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Ivory Coast.
Michael Essien (Chelsea), Ghana.
Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona), Cameroon.
Francesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Spain.
Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Italy.
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), England.
Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Wales.
Thierry Henry (Barcelona), France.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter), Sweden.
Filippo Inzaghi (Milan), Italy.
Kaka (Milan), Brasil.
Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla), Mali.
Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich), Germany.
Younis Mahmoud (Algharafa), Iraq.
Paolo Maldini (Milan), Italy.
Florent Malouda (Chelsea), France.
Lionel Andres Messi (Barcelona), Argentina.
Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic), Japan.
Guillermo Ochoa (America Mexico), Mexico.
Andrea Pirlo (Milan), Italy.
Ricardo Quaresma (Porto), Portugal.
Raul (Real Madrid), Spain.
Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), France.
Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal), Argentina.
Robinho (Real Madrid), Brasil.
Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Brasil.
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), England.
Paul Scholes (Manchester United), England.
Clarence Seedorf (Milan), Holland.
Carlos Tevez (Manchester United), Argentina.
Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Italy.
Kolo Toure (Arsenal), Ivory Coast.
Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Spain.
Francesco Totti (Roma), Italy.
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), Holland.
Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Holland.
David Villa (Valencia), Spain.


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Apparently better then the FIFA list :shrug:
 

joey.leone

Well-Known Member
Oct 10, 2005
2,079
1,590
good to see berbs amongst the candidates

i get confused with all the different prizes for players lol
 

tobi

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose
Jun 10, 2003
17,446
11,568
Kaka has won, nice to see Totti there.
 
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