Ballon d'Or

[No Fixed Abode]

DROGBA AND ANCELOTTI NOMINATED AS WORLD`S BEST
Posted on: Tue 26 Oct 2010
Didier Drogba and Carlo Ancelotti are in the running for the most prestigious individual awards in football.

For many years two such accolades have been handed out towards the end of the calendar year - the Ballon d'Or for the best footballer playing in Europe and Fifa's World Player of the Year.

For 2010, the two have been amalgamated to form the Fifa Balloon d'Or which honours the best player across the globe, as decided by the managers and captains of each national team plus a panel of international journalists selected by France Football magazine (a combination the voting system for the two previous awards.

In addition to the player award, there is an inaugural World Coach of the Year award.

Drogba is one of 32-nominees for the Ballon d'Or, a list that includes just two others plying their trade in the Barclays Premier League - Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas and Sunderland's Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan.

Fabregas is one of seven members of Spain's World Cup-winning squad named.

There are 10 nominees for the Coach of the Year with Ancelotti joined by Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.

The winners will be announced in Zurich on 10 January.

No-one won the old Ballon d'Or award as a Chelsea player, but former Blues Andriy Shevchenko (2004), George Weah (1995) and Ruud Gullit (1987) were all winners while with AC Milan.

Frank Lampard has the best showing by a player while at Chelsea. He finished second in 2005. Drogba was fourth in the 2007 awards. The award was initiated in 1956 when Stanley Matthews was the first winner, but Michael Owen remains the only player at an English club to scoop the prize since the 1970s.

The Fifa World Player was awarded for the past 18 years with the best past placing of a Chelsea player also coming in 2005 when Lampard finished second. In 2007 Drogba was fourth.

Lionel Messi won both awards last year.

The full 2010 list of World Player of the Year nominees are:

Xabi Alonso (Spain), Daniel Alves (Brazil), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Julio Cesar (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Maicon (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Muller (Germany), Mesut Ozil (Germany), Carles Puyol (Spain), Arjen Robben (Holland), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Holland), David Villa (Spain) and Xavi (Spain).

World Coach of the Year nominees:

Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Vicente del Bosque (Spain), Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), Pep Guardiola (FC Barcelona), Joachim Low (Germany), Jose Mourinho (Inter Milan/Real Madrid), Oscar Tabarez (Uruguay), Louis Van Gaal (Bayern Munich), Bert van Marwijk (Holland) and Arsene Wenger (Arsenal).

[TBM]

Andres Iniesta and Jose Mourinho for me

[No Fixed Abode]

Andres Iniesta and Jose Mourinho for me

Yeh will be.

[3 veesinarow]

Wenger? On what basis can they possibly have included him? The team he manages haven't won a thing for millenia now.

[TBM]

Wenger? On what basis can they possibly have included him? The team he manages haven't won a thing for millenia now.

Joachim Low (Germany)
Oscar Tabarez (Uruguay)
Bert van Marwijk (Holland)

[soggy biscuit]

Balloon d'Or

The winners salary will be inflated following this

[3 veesinarow]

Wenger? On what basis can they possibly have included him? The team he manages haven't won a thing for millenia now.

Joachim Low (Germany)
Oscar Tabarez (Uruguay)
Bert van Marwijk (Holland)

Same point - just being Premership-centric in my first question.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

David Villa and Mourinho for me

[sheshnu]

Sneijder has done remarkably well with Inter (European champs) and Holland (WC finalists) so he's got to be the winner. Maybe Robben? Surprised one of those Spaniards hasn't won it before; perhaps it's about time one of them did, actually.

Coach has to be José, doesn't it?

[soggy biscuit]

Just 3 Premier League players included on the list. But Sky Sports keep telling me it is the best league in the world???

[Silver Fox]

The best iondividuals don't make it the best league (not that I'm disagreeing with your point exactly

What I love about the coverage is that due to the lack of English players (shocker!) they keep mentioning the 3 Prem players, including Asamoah Gyan who must have really earnt those votes since he's been at Sunderland

[prostak]

Robben's been too hit-and-miss over the past year. God knows what Klose's done to merit inclusion, likewise Fabregas. Sneijder or Iniesta for me, with Ancelotti or Löw for the coaching award. Both Löw and van Maarwijk did great jobs with making teams appear much more than the sum of their parts, but I'd argue the Dutchman had slightly more base talent to work with. The difference in performances of players like Westermann, Klose and Podolski in a national shirt compared with those for their clubs is often huge.

It'll be Iniesta and Jose though.

[11.30 from paddington]

Iniesta and Del Bosque for delivering Spain's first World Cup.

[soggy biscuit]

José for winning the treble. Iniesta or Xavi.

[Maguire]

Mourinho and, hmm, guess it's a four-way race between Xavi, Iniesta, Schneider, and Messi.

If Messi had managed a half-decent world cup then he'd be a shoo-in (34 goals in 35 games, purlease). He didn't though, so i'd be looking at Schneider quite honestly.

[prostak]

i'd be looking at Schneider quite honestly.

Bernd retired last summer mate

[floyd__streete]

LOL @ Wenger being on the list. Trophies since 2005? NIL.

[BR2]

Where's Rooney? (other than being in Dubai doing a bit of shopping),supposedly our one world class player.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

.

Miroslav Klose (Germany),

[Maguire]

i'd be looking at Schneider quite honestly.

Bernd retired last summer mate

Oh shit. Okay, Meschi then.