The powers-that-be at FIFA have announced their usual long shortlist for the World Player of the Year award. I sometimes wonder whether they just trawl through last year’s list and cross off a few names they haven’t heard mentioned for a while.
Frank Lampard? He had a relatively poor season and an appalling World Cup. Zinedine Zidane? This isn’t the lifetime achievement award. He had a couple of great matches at the World Cup, but even that ended badly. Adriano can’t get a game for Brazil and was out of shape as well as form in Germany.
FIFA announces longlist for World Player of the Year award continued
The full list is:
Adriano (Inter Milan, Brazil) Michael Ballack (Chelsea, Germany) Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, Italy) Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy) Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal) Petr Cech (Chelsea, Czech Republic) Deco (Barcelona, Portugal) Didier Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast) Michael Essien (Chelsea, Ghana) Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona, Cameroon) Luis Figo (Inter Milan, Portugal) Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan, Italy) Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, England) Thierry Henry (Arsenal, France) Kaka (AC Milan, Brazil) Miroslav Klose (Werder Bremen, Germany) Philippe Lahm (Bayern Munich, Germany) Frank Lampard (Chelsea, England) Jens Lehmann (Arsenal, Germany) Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan, Italy) Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan, Italy) Franck Ribery (Marseille, France) Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal, Argentina) Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil) Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, England) Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal, Czech Republic) Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea, Ukraine) Lilian Thuram (Barcelona, France) Patrick Vieira (Inter Milan, France) Zinedine Zidane (retired, France)
But we’ll narrow it down to 10 serious candidates:
Fabio Cannavaro, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, Steven Gerrard, Thierry Henry, Kaka, Miroslav Klose, Juan Roman Riquelme, Ronaldinho
[Rob Parker]