FIFA Announce 23-Man Ballon d’Or Shortlist – No Englishmen Nominated As Usual Suspects (Ronaldo, Messi, Zlatan, Bale, Ribery) Take Centre Stage

Chris Wright

29th, October 2013

17 Comments

By Chris Wright

Spain Soccer La Liga

Halloo halay! The rather-quite-long shortlist for the FIFA Ballon d’Or has been announced this morning by FIFA themselves, with not a single English player getting a token nod this time round – not that we’re surprised about that in any way, shape or form.

Of course, Lionel Messi is bang on course to win his fifth Golden Ball in a row, though Cristiano Ronaldo is thought to be closer than ever to pipping the Barcelona man and ending his streak and Fronk Ribery is being touted as the dark horse that may just muscle in on the all-conquering duopoly at the top of the bill having already been crowned UEFA’s best player in Europe for 2012/13 not so very long ago.

Here are the shortlists in full, starting with the FIFA Ballon d’Or itself…

Gareth Bale, Edinson Cavani, Radamel Falcao, Eden Hazard, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Andres Iniesta, Philipp Lahm, Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi, Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer, Neymar, Mesut Ozil, Andrea Pirlo, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, Cristiano Ronaldo, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Luis Suarez, Thiago Silva, Yaya Toure, Robin van Persie, Xavi.

FIFA World Coach of the Year 2013…

Carlo Ancelotti (PSG/Real Madrid), Rafael Benítez (Chelsea/Napoli), Antonio Conte (Juventus), Vicente Del Bosque (Spain), Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), Jupp Heynckes (Bayern Munich), Jürgen Klopp (Borussia Dortmund), Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid/Chelsea), Luiz Felipe Scolari (Brazil), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)

The shortlist will be whittled down further in December then the winner, as always, will be unveiled at FIFA’s silly gala dinner in Zurich, Switzerland on January 13th.

If Pies had to stick our neck out, we’d have a shiny groat on Ronaldo taking it this time round – y’know, just for a nice change of pace – though we’d love to see the truly magnificent Philipp Lahm given the credit he’s due one of these days. not that he’s deemed remotely flashy enough to win FIFA’s big one.

We’re also throwing our considerable weight behind Jupp for coach of the year. Trebles and all that jazz.

Who’s yer money on Pies fans?

Posted in Barcelona, Managers, Newsnow, Real Madrid

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17 Comments

  1. Humm says:

    Also what has Eden Hazard done to get on the short list?

    • Chris says:

      @Humm: A couple of step-overs. He’s also very good at getting ‘bundled over’.

      And we think you’ll find it’s ‘Fronk’.

  2. rajanRawat says:

    @humm, @chris – he did kick the ballboy didnt he ..

  3. GlitterFreezee says:

    Zlatan or Francky Ribery

  4. Bieks says:

    I agree Lahm should get some credit but defending isn’t sexy.

    My vote would be for Zlatan because some of his goals just blow your mind, but it will probably be CR7 or Fronk. Messi has had too much of a dropoff from the CL knockout to be taken seriously this year.

  5. JC says:

    Previously ranked 70th when he was assistant, current Belgian head coach Marc Wilmots has gotten Belgium to the current unbelievable position of 5th ranked on the FIFA Ranking (…FIFA being the keyword)

    …..what does the man have to do to be nominated??

    Wenger??….is that for signing Ozil?…. Mourinho? Didn’t he “lose” his job by mutual consent.

  6. don says:

    Coach has to be Jupp in my opinion. He won everything there was to win, with an insane record, while playing playing attractive football. Some of the coaches are really ridiculous. What did Wenger, Mou or Del Bosque achieve noteworthy in 2013?

    Would love to see Lahm or Müller win, but guess it will be between Cristiana and Fronck.

  7. peace says:

    To those who do not know.

    LEW – In polish means lion.

    So im backing the lion man himself.

    LEWANDOWSKI!

  8. Ali says:

    can someone explain the use of “Fronk” to me

  9. ande says:

    When you pronounce “Franck” like a Frenchman it sounds like “Fronk”.
    So in Munich you will hear long shouts of “Frooooooonk” everytime Ribery’s name is announced.

  10. KingB3113` says:

    Hazard? Really? If you’re gonna name a Chelsea player it has to be Mata

  11. Stefano says:

    Philip Lahm, he`s getting better and better every year, as far as that is still possible. But i bet on Zlatan because he also thinks that way. So who could resist?

    Coaches: Jupp of course let it alone for lifetime achivement and late Grandezza.

  12. Daniel Swildens says:

    Messi is still the best player in the world. The best of the rest of this year would be Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Ozil, or Ribery.

  13. oisin says:

    wheres vidal,mata and reus

  14. Eden Hazard says:

    Eden Hazard Is good for world best player

  15. Anonymous says:

    Messi is current best player

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