Men’s shortlists for FIFA Ballon d’Or 2013 revealed

Fifa.com


Four days after announcing the names of the candidates for the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year and the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football for 2013 awards, FIFA and France Football have today revealed the names for the men’s awards.


The candidates for the FIFA Ballon d’Or and for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football awards have been unveiled (see below). The final decisions will be made by the captains and head coaches of the men’s national teams as well as by international media representatives selected by France Football.


The winners of all of the awards will be revealed at the FIFA Ballon d’Or as part of a televised show at the Zurich Kongresshaus on 13 January 2014, during which the FIFA FIFPro World XI, the FIFA Puskás Award – for the most beautiful goal of the year – the FIFA Presidential Award and the FIFA Fair Play Award will also be presented.


The list of 23 male candidates has been drawn up by football experts from the FIFA Football Committee and by a group of experts from France Football. The list of ten coaches has been drawn up by the Committee for Women’s Football and FIFA Women’s World Cup and by the FIFA Football Committee, as well as by a group of experts from France Football.


In early December 2013, FIFA and France Football will announce the names of the three men and three women, as well as the three coaches for women’s football and three coaches for men’s football, who have received the most votes (without unveiling the winners). The three nominees for the FIFA Puskás Award and the FIFA FIFPro World XI shortlist for the best forwards, goalkeepers, defenders and midfielders will also be unveiled in early December.


Men’s shortlists for the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2013:

The following 23 men (in alphabetical order) are in contention for the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2013:


Gareth Bale (Wales), Edinson Cavani (Uruguay), Radamel Falcao (Colombia), Eden Hazard (Belgium), Zlatan Ibrahimović (Sweden), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Robert Lewandowski (Poland), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Müller (Germany), Manuel Neuer (Germany), Neymar (Brazil), Mesut Özil (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Franck Ribéry (France), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Luis Suárez (Uruguay), Thiago Silva (Brazil), Yaya Touré (Côte d’Ivoire), Robin Van Persie (Netherlands), Xavi (Spain).


The following ten coaches (in alphabetical order, first nationality and then team) are in contention for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football 2013:

Carlo Ancelotti (Italy/Paris Saint-Germain FC/Real Madrid CF), Rafael Benítez (Spain/Chelsea FC/SSC Napoli), Antonio Conte (Italy/Juventus), Vicente Del Bosque (Spain/Spain national team), Sir Alex Ferguson (Scotland/Manchester United FC former coach), Jupp Heynckes (Germany/FC Bayern München former coach), Jürgen Klopp (Germany/Borussia Dortmund), José Mourinho (Portugal/Real Madrid CF/Chelsea FC), Luiz Felipe Scolari (Brazil/Brazil national team), Arsène Wenger (France/Arsenal FC).


The official FIFA Ballon d’Or Facebook page has also been launched: www.facebook.com/FIFABallonDor


To discuss who YOU think should win this year’s prizes on Twitter, use the hashtag #BallondOr

Messi, Ribery, Lewandowski
Heynckes, Klopp, Conte

Thanks for posting!

Last year's ranking (with those Barca players in bolt that are nominees again):
1. Messi (41.60%) 2. Ronaldo (23.68%) 3. Iniesta (10.91%) 4. Xavi (4.08%) 5. Falcao (3.67%) 6. Casillas (3.18%) 7. Pirlo (2.66%) 8. Drogba (2.60%) 9. RVP (1.45%) 10. Ibra (1.24%) 11. Xabi Alonso (1.09%) 12. Yaya Touré (0.76%) 13. Neymar (0.61%) 14. Özil (0.41%) 15. Rooney (0.39%) 16. Buffon (0.35%) 17. Agüero (0.30%) 18. Ramos (0.22%) 19. Neuer (0.21%) 20. Busquets (0.20%) 21. Piqué (0.11%) 22. Benzema (0.11%) 23. Balotelli (0.07%).

Given Neymar's Confederation Cup performance, his good la liga/CL showing and the clasico, he should have good chances to get into the top 10/top 5. If he manages to score in a CL match, that would even be better. I don't see Xavi or Iniesta reaching the top 10 at all, although they might get some complimentary votes from Del Bosque, Iker and of course Messi.

I expect Ibra to crawl up some places as well, especially since there has been some campaigning for him in the last couple of days. Seeing that the only Dortmund player is Lewandowski and he finished 4th place in the UEFA best player award, he should do well too. Top 3 should be doable, but it will be very very hard for either of them to finish top.

With the amount of Bayern players nominated, it will be hard for Ribery now to continue on compaigning for himself like he did; same goes for Bayern. I expect all of Ribery, Schweinsteiger and Müller (+ Lahm?) to end up in the top 10.

What suit will he wear this time?

Of all the Barca nominees I can only see Messi getting in the top 3. So what are the chances of Messi getting the Ballon d'or again? He has been injured a lot. Cr7 didn't win anything this year and he didn't even qualify yet for the WCup, so his chances are slim. Ribery? The voters will also vote for other Bayern players. So who will it be in january?? Hope Barca can take it back home to the Camp Nou!!

Messi or Ribery will win it! It should be Messi though!

Even if Messi only got 1/4 of all the points, which would only be nearly half of the votes he got last year, it would require Ribery (or Ronaldo or whomever) to get the very large majority of the votes. Seems nearly impossible for Ribery due to too many strong Bayern players being nominated. Even making it into the top 3 would be a close call given his competition.

I hope the top 3 are Messi, Neymar, CR

would be epic ing for Ribery

Messi with his dry spell at the moment won't win the Ballon-d'Or. IF he keeps on scoring till end of this year then maybe he will. He needs to step up against Milan. But riberry looks close to it now.

numero said:

Messi with his dry spell at the moment won't win the Ballon-d'Or. IF he keeps on scoring till end of this year then maybe he will. He needs to step up against Milan. But riberry looks close to it now.

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I am sorry but why should Ribery win it? Bastian Schweinsteiger, Robben also deserve it IMO. Bayern was the best TEAM in 2013. They had (and still have) an amazing team. I really do NOT consider Ribery to be the best player on the planet. Cr7 is much better than Ribery. Let alone Messi.

poldep said:

I am sorry but why should Ribery win it? Bastian Schweinsteiger, Robben also deserve it IMO. Bayern was the best TEAM in 2013. They had (and still have) an amazing team. I really do NOT consider Ribery to be the best player on the planet. Cr7 is much better than Ribery. Let alone Messi.

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Robben IMO.

poldep said:

I am sorry but why should Ribery win it? Bastian Schweinsteiger, Robben also deserve it IMO. Bayern was the best TEAM in 2013. They had (and still have) an amazing team. I really do NOT consider Ribery to be the best player on the planet. Cr7 is much better than Ribery. Let alone Messi.

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the award is not given to the best player per se... it's given to the one who has done the best work in that particular year...

apart from that... I concur with you. Ribery was not the only one who made Bayern the formidable force they were last season. Other Bayern players played a similar role too

How is Hazard on it?

That shortlist of manager of the year is a joke. Mourinho didn't win anything, Wenger too ...and Scolari wtf ...Simeone not even included ...Epic Fail!

Jenks said:

How is Hazard on it?

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This. Hazard is on the list, but no Reus

BarcaGirl said:

That shortlist of manager of the year is a joke. Mourinho didn't win anything, Wenger too ...and Scolari wtf ...Simeone not even included ...Epic Fail!



This. Hazard is on the list, but no Reus

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Scolari won the Confed Cup while annihilating Spain in the final

Tito and Simeone deserved to be there though... Tito with his best ever league win in Spain and Simeone for obvious reasons