The nominees for this year’s prestigious Ballon d’or award was announced on Tuesday and the shortlist rather unsurprisingly was full of La Liga players including eight from Barcelona and five from Real Madrid.
The usual suspects Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi and a few surprises including Mesut Ozil and Eric Abidal all made the 23-man list on Tuesday, providing further evidence that La Liga has now unarguably become the world’s best football league. Lionel Messi is 1/7 favourite with Victor Chandler to reclaim his Ballon d’or crown with his closest rival Cristiano Ronaldo at a much more attractive 7/1.
Here is a full list of this year’s nominees.
Eric Abidal (France)
Sergio Aguero (Argentina)
Karim Benzema (France)
Iker Casillas (Spain)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Dani Alves (Brazil)
Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
Cesc Fabregas (Spain)
Diego Forlan (Uruguay)
Andres Iniesta (Spain)
Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Thomas Muller (Germany)
Nani (Portugal)
Neymar (Brazil)
Mesut Ozil (Germany)
Gerard Pique (Spain)
Wayne Rooney (England)
Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany)
Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands)
Luis Suarez (Uruguay)
David Villa (Spain)
Xabi Alonso (Spain)
Xavi (Spain)
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