FIFA and Ballon d’Or have recently merged and the world’s best player for 2010 will be awarded the FIFA Ballon d’Or. From here on, there will no longer be a FIFA World Player of the Year and a separate winner for France Football’s Ballon d’Or.
Ballon d’Or or The Golden Ball, often referred to as the European Footballer of the Year, is the annual award presented to the association football player who is considered to be the best performer for the previous calendar year. When it was started by the chief magazine writer of France Football in 1956, it only voted on European football players and journalists selected the winner. So Pele though considered to be one of the best football player was never considered for this award. It was only in 1995 when the rules were changed. Non-European players are eligible only if they are playing for European football clubs. In 2007, the rules were changed again to allow any player of any nationality and wearing any teamwear of any club around the world to be nominated. Of course, this move also increased the number of voting journalists from 52 European based journalists to 96 journalists from around the world.
On the other hand, the FIFA World Player of the year is also an association football award given annually to the best male and female player based on the votes of the coaches and captains of international teams.
Recently, FIFA announced the shortlist for the prestigious Ballon d’Or, World Coach of the Year and other awards which will be announced on January 10, 2011 in Zurich. As you might notice on the list below, it is dominated by those who shone in the recent FIFA 2010 World Cup. Most of the names come from the winner Spain and semi-finalists Germany and Netherlands.
The contenders are:
Xabi Alonso
(Spain) |
Dani Alves
(Brazil) | |
Iker Casillas
(Spain) |
Cristiano Ronaldo
(Portugal) | |
Didier Drogba
(Ivory Coast) |
Samuel Eto'o
(Cameroon) | |
Cesc Fabregas
(Spain) |
Asamoah Gyan
(Ghana) | |
Julio Cesar
(Brazil) |
Miroslav Klose
(Germany) | |
Philipp Lahm
(Germany) |
Maicon
(Brazil) | |
Thomas Mueller
(Germany) |
Arjen Robben
(Netherlands) | |
Bastian Schweinsteiger
(Germany) |
David Villa
(Spain) | |
Xavi
(Spain) |
Carles Puyol
(Spain) | |
Andres Iniesta
(Spain) |
Diego Forlan
(Uruguay) | |
Lionel Messi
(Argentina) |
Mesut Oezil
(Germany) | |
Wesley Sneijder
(Netherlands) |
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