ZURICH — The three 2012 Fifa Ballon d’Or nominees were announced yesterday as Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona stars Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta.
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Messi (25) has won the award three times already and is favourite to do so again after a year that’s seen him score 82 goals so far.
Further to the Ballon d’Or announcement, the shortlist for coach of the year was revealed as Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho, former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola and Spain’s Euro 2012 winning coach Vicente Del Bosque.
The women’s shortlist has Brazil’s Marta and American duo Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach up for the prize.
In addition, the three nominees for the Fifa Puskás award for the most beautiful goal of the year were announced. They are: Falcao (América de Cali-Atletico Madrid, 19 May 2012), Neymar (Santos-Internacional, 7 March 2012) and Miroslav (Fenerbahçe-Gençlerbirliği, 3 March 2012).
All the awards will be presented at the Fifa Ballon d’Or Gala at the Kongresshaus in Zurich on 7 January 2013 during a televised show to be streamed live on Fifa.com and Fifa on YouTube.
In addition to the above awards, the recipient of the Fifa Presidential Award and the Fifa Fair Play award will also be revealed during the gala.
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All the nominees were confirmed after a poll in which the captains and head coaches of the men’s and women’s national teams, as well as international media representatives selected by France Football, voted for candidates.
The shortlist of 15 forwards for the Fifa FIFPro World XI was also announced, completing the final shortlist of 55 players featuring five goalkeepers, 20 defenders and 15 midfielders. See the full list by clicking on the link to the right.
