2009 European Footballer of the Year Award Shortlist

Argentina's Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo were among the 30 players short listed for the 2009 Ballon d'Or award announced by the organisers France Football magazine on their website http://www.francefootball.fr/ on Sunday.

Last year’s winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, faces a strong competition from Lionel Messi, Franck Ribery and Andres Iniesta for the honour which is popularly referred to as the European Footballer of the Year Award. But, Lionel Messi's winning chances are almost 100%. No competitor is in sight.

This year’s list of nominees was marked by the absence of players from the current world champions Italy as well as the Euro 2008 losing finalists Germany.

The maximum players representing a club are from the Champions League and La Liga winners Barcelona which has six players, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Yaya Toure and Xavi, in the shortlist.

There are six players from the European champions Spain making it the nation with highest number of players in the list.


The 30 players included in the list are:

Andrei Arshavin, Russia (Arsenal)

Karim Benzema, France (Real Madrid)

Iker Casillas, Spain (Real Madrid)

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal (Real Madrid)

Diego, Brazil (Juventus)

Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast (Chelsea)

Edin Dzeko, Bosnia (Wolfsburg)

Samuel Eto'o, Cameroon (Inter Milan)

Cesc Fabregas, Spain (Arsenal)

Fernando Torres, Spain (Liverpool)

Diego Forlan, Uruguay (Atletico Madrid)

Steven Gerrard, England (Liverpool)

Ryan Giggs, Wales (Manchester United)

Yoann Gourcuff, France (Bordeaux)

Thierry Henry, France (Barcelona)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sweden (Barcelona)

Andres Iniesta, Spain (Barcelona)

Julio Cesar, Brazil (Inter Milan)

Kaka, Brazil (Real Madrid)

Frank Lampard, England (Chelsea)

Maicon, Brazil (Inter Milan)

Lionel Messi, Argentina (Barcelona)

Luis Fabiano, Brazil (Sevilla)

Franck Ribery, France (Bayern Munich)

Wayne Rooney, England (Manchester United)

John Terry, England (Chelsea)

Nemanja Vidic, Serbia (Manchester United)

David Villa, Spain (Valencia)

Xavi, Spain (Barcelona)

Yaya Toure, Ivory Coast (Barcelona)

Ballon d'Or award was conceived by France Football magazine’s chief writer Gabriel Hanot in 1956 and since then the German and Dutch players have made a record of winning this award seven times each. Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten have won the award three times each while Platini is the only player who won this honour three times in a row from 1983 to 1985.
The voting for this award is done by soccer journalists and the name of this year’s winner shall be declared on 1 December, 2009.


By: Meenal Johari

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