FIFA BALLON D'OR NOMINEES

If you are football lover and you pitch your camp with a particular team in whatever league of your choice around the world you'll know for sure that the rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo spans beyond the usual La Liga El Cashico rivalry but extends onto the world scene as well.
If you didn't forget Fifa.com Football's world governing body has announced the 3 finalist for the most prestigious Individual award In the History of the Game The Golde Ball (Ballon D'or).
The full list of nominees and categories are:
The contenders for this year's FIFA Ballon d'Or award for the best player of 2013 and for the FIFA Women's World Player of the Year 2013 award were announced on FIFA.com, francefootball.fr and YouTube.
In alphabetical order, the FIFA Ballon d'Or nominees are:
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Lionel Messi (Argentina) and
Franck Ribéry (France), while Nadine Angerer (Germany),
Marta (Brazil) and Abby Wambach (USA) will contest the women's award.
The candidates for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football and FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football awards were also announced. In alphabetical order, the contenders are:
Sir Alex Ferguson (Scotland/Manchester United FC former coach), Jupp Heynckes (Germany/FC Bayern München former coach) and Jürgen Klopp (Germany/Borussia Dortmund)
for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football award, and
Ralf Kellermann (Germany/VfL Wolfsburg), Silvia Neid (Germany/German national team) and Pia Sundhage (Sweden/ Swedish national team) for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football award.
All the nominees were confirmed after a voting process which was open to the captains and head coaches of the men's and women's national teams of the 209 member associations as well as to international media representatives selected by FIFA and France Football voted for candidates.
The percentages of the collected votes are as follows (number of votes/number of associations):
Voting for men's awards:
Member associations (captains & coaches): 88%
Media representatives: 94% Voting for women's awards:
Member associations (captains & coaches): 83%
Media representatives: 70%
The voting procedure for each of the awards is supervised and monitored by the independent observer PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC) Switzerland.
The shortlist of 15 forwards for the FIFA FIFPro World XI was also announced, completing the final shortlist of 55 players also featuring five goalkeepers, 20 defenders and 15 midfielders.
The forward shortlist is (home country, club):
Sergio Agüero (Argentina, Manchester City FC); Mario Balotelli (Italy, Manchester City FC/AC Milan); Edinson Cavani (Uruguay, SSC Napoli/Paris Saint-Germain FC); Diego Costa
(Spain, Club Atlético de Madrid); Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Real Madrid CF); Didier Drogba (Côte d'Ivoire, Shanghai
Shenhua FC/Galatasaray SK); Radamel Falcao (Colombia, Club Atlético de Madrid/AS Monaco FC); Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden, Paris Saint-Germain FC); Robert Lewandowski
(Poland, Borussia Dortmund); Mario Mandžukić (Croatia, FC Bayern München); Lionel Messi (Argentina, FC Barcelona); Neymar (Brazil, Santos FC/FC Barcelona); Wayne Rooney
(England, Manchester United FC); Luis Suárez (Uruguay, Liverpool FC); Robin van Persie (Netherlands, Manchester United FC).
See the full list on FIFA.com:
http://www.fifa.com/ballondor/world11/index.html
In addition, the three nominees for the FIFA Puskás Award for
the "most beautiful goal of the year" were announced. They are (in alphabetical order of the goalscorers' names): Zlatan
Ibrahimović (13 November 2012, Sweden v. England, international friendly), Nemanja Matić (13 January 2013, SL Benfica v. FC Porto, Liga ZON Sagres (Portugal)) and Neymar (15 June 2013, Brazil v. Japan, FIFA Confederations Cup).
All the awards will be presented at the FIFA Ballon d'Or award ceremony at the Kongresshaus in Zurich on 13 January 2014 during a televised show to be streamed live on FIFA.com and
FIFA on YouTube.
In addition to the above awards, the recipient of the FIFA Presidential Award and the winner of the FIFA Fair Play award
will also be revealed during the award ceremony.
Do not forget that Franck Ribery is the current European Player of the Year! The Award Invented by Uefa.com to replace the Ballon Dor after it was merged with Fifa.com's Male World footballer of the Year in 2010.
Lionel Messi has won the first 3 FIFA Ballon D'or at the expense of Iniesta (1ce) and C. Ronaldo (2ce) this is the 4th edition of the Award since inception in the 2010.
We all know that Messi his currently and out of play while his absense has been well filled by Neymar and Sanchez both grabbing hattricks in his absense, however, Ronaldo has being having a good day even before Messi got Injured, scoring 29 goals in 21 appearances so far!!! And Franck Ribery also recently won the FIFA World Club Cup MVP in the just concluded tourney after helping Bayern Munich Win their 4th Trophy for the Year 2013!
The issue of who will win the most prestigious Award in Football for the year 2013 still remain a hard nut to crack, however, the suspense comes to halt as all road leads to the Kongresshaus, Zurich come jan 13 2014! Don't Miss It, that is actually 4 days after the Glo-Caf Awards Night! Have A sporting year Ahead!!!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone!