Race to Ballon d’Or: List of world’s top 23 footballers revealed
The list, announced on Tuesday, features 10 players from La Liga. Five of the players that won the Champions League with Real last season make it into the nominees although the man of the match in the final, Angel Di Maria, now plies his trade for Manchester United after being sold in the summer. However, Real’s new arrivals James Rodriguez, who won the World Cup Golden Boot, and World Cup winner Toni Kroos also make the list to take Real’s numbers to six.
The high number of Real and Barcelona players will once again raise questions about Fifa’s prestigious award as the Catalonians also have four players included in the list despite failing to win any major trophy.
While the inclusion of South American trio Messi, Neymar and Javier Mascherano can be justified by their World Cup exploits, that of Andres Iniesta cannot as Spain crashed out in the group stage. Since the merging of the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year to create the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010, Franck Ribery’s third-place finish last year was the first time that a player in the final three did not play for one of the two Spanish giants.
However, Barcelona’s marquee summer signing — Luis Suarez — fails to make it into the list despite equalling the record number of Premier League goals in a season for Liverpool, with many believing the omission may be down to his bite on Italian Giorgio Chiellini in the World Cup.
Interestingly all six Germans included in the list plied their trade for Bayern Munich till the World Cup, with Toni Kroos’ summer departure meaning that he is the only German not currently in the Bavarian’s books. All six Bundesliga representatives also play for Bayern, with the German contingent of Mario Götze, Thomas Müller, Philipp Lahm, Manuel Neuer and Bastian Schweinsteiger being joined by Dutch winger Arjen Robben.
The English Premier League also has five players in the list but only Eden Hazard and Yaya Toure were playing in it before the World Cup as Di Maria, Diego Costa and Thibaut Courtois were also imported from Spain during the close season. In keeping with the worrying demise of the English game, they have no representation in the list for the second year running.
The divide between the top three leagues and the rest is visible in the fact that Paris Saint-Germain’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juventus’ Paul Pogba are the only two in the list who do not play in Germany, France or England.
The final three candidates will now be announced on December 1, while the winner will be revealed on January 12 in Zurich.
The other awards
Germany's World Cup winning coach Joachim Loew and Real's Champions League winning coach Carlo Ancelotti lead the 10-man list for the coach’s award.
The goal of the year and a fair play award are also up for grabs, while a World XI will also be named on January 12.
National team coaches and captains, as well as a media panel selected by France Football magazine, will vote for the winners.
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