Ballon D'or Nominations

eirebhoy

France Football have named the 50 nominees for the prestigious Ballon d'Or award...

Full list of nominees:

Adriano (Internazionale)
Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich)
David Beckham (Real Madrid)
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus)
Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus)
Jamie Carragher (Liverpool)
Petr Cech (Chelsea)
Gregory Coupet (Lyon)
Cris (Lyon)
Deco (Barcelona)
Dida (Milan)
Didier Drogba (Chelsea)
Emerson (Juventus)
Michael Essien (Chelsea)
Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona)
Luis Figo (Internazionale)
Diego Forlan (Villarreal)
Luis Garcia (Liverpool)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Thierry Henry (Arsenal)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juventus)
Juninho (Lyon)
Kaka (Milan)
Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Roy Makaay (Bayern Munich)
Claude Makelele (Chelsea)
Paolo Maldini (Milan)
Pavel Nedved (Juventus)
Michael Owen (Newcastle)
Park Ji-sung (Manchester United)
Andrea Pirlo (Milan)
Raul (Real Madrid)
Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal)
Arjen Robben (Chelsea)
Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid)
Robinho (Real Madrid)
Ronaldinho (Barcelona)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
Andrei Shevchenko (Milan)
John Terry (Chelsea)
Lilian Thuram (Juventus)
David Trezeguet (Juventus)
Marc van Bommel (Barcelona)
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United)
Patrick Vieira (Juventus)
Xavi (Barcelona)
Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid)

A better list than Fifa's but how does players like Arjen Robben get on it? He started 12 games for Chelsea since the 1st January and was probably below par in the majority of them.

Royale with Cheese

Ok what is Cristiano Ronaldo doing there. But more importantly... Luis Garcia? WTF????

evilhomer

Figo is another shock player on their, since he practically couldn't get a game for Real last season.
Luis Garcia is probably there based on his very important champions league goals for Liverpool, they probably never seen him play in the premiership, where he is rubbish!

Robinho (Real Madrid), hmmmmm hasn't played a massive amount of football in europe yet.

Kingp35

It is a better list than FIFAs but again there are players there purely based on their name such as Robinho and also they must not have done much research if the absolutley awful Luis Garcia can make that list.

Nunu

Glad to see Pirlo in there a very underrated player, a vital cog in the milan machine. He sits in front of the defence starting every attack. People think Gattuso does this role, he doesn't. He is in a central two in front of Pirlo. Ferguson at United should follow this lead reversing Smith and Fletchers roles. Fletcher(Pirlo) in front of the back four with Smith(Gattuso) in a more offensive midfield role. Having Smith in front of the back four is ludicrous.

Also the inclusion of Xavi is bang on. I'd have those 2 in my World X1 every day of the week.

SpAcEd OuT

Juventus have the most players nominated with 9

Davei141

Robinho...

Lemlin

Not a single Irish player on the list. I thought Duff would of made it.

And I'm a fan of Didier Drogba but he was hardly influential for Chelsea last season.

eirebhoy

TBF, Duff doesn't deserve to be on the list. At least 10 of those players on the list are in the same category though so he wouldn't be out of place.

Pepe LeFrits

Kavanagh should be on there, excellent player.

eirebhoy

1989/1990 Season :-- Social Ramos Club (Brazil) - 8 goals in 12 games.
1990/1993 Season :-- Sao Cristovao (Brazil) - 36 goals in 54 games.
1993/1994 Season :-- Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte (Brazil) - 58 goals in 60 games.
1994/1995 Season :-- PSV Eindhoven (Holland) - 36 goals in 37 games.
1995/1996 Season :-- PSV Eindhoven (Holland) - 19 goals in 19 games.
1996/1997 Season :-- Barcelona (Spain) - 47 goals in 49 games.
1997/1998 Season :-- Inter Milan (Italy) - 25 goals in 30 games.
1998/1999 Season :-- Inter Milan (Italy) - 15 goals in 19 games.
1999/2000 Season :-- Inter Milan (Italy) - 3 goals in 7 games.
2000/2001 Season :-- Inter Milan (Italy) - Knee injury.
2001/2002 Season :-- Inter Milan (Italy) - 7 goals in 10 games.
2002/2003 Season :-- Real Madrid (Spain) - 23 goals in 31 games.
2003/2004 Season :-- Real Madrid (Spain) - 24 goals in 32 games.
2004/2005 Season :-- Real Madrid (Spain) - 21 goals in 34 games.
2005/2006 Season :-- Real Madrid (Spain) - 7 goals in 7 games.

1 x Dutch Cup 1995-1996
1 x Spanish League 2002-2003
1 x Spanish Cup 1996-1997
1 x Cup Winners Cup 1996-1997
1 x UEFA Cup 1997-1998
2 x Copa America 1997, 1999
1 x World Cup 2002
1 x Dutch League Top Scorer 1994-1995
2 x Spanish League Top Scorer 1996-1997, 2003-2004
1 x Copa America Top Scorer 1999
1 x World Cup Top Scorer 2002
3 x FIFA World Player of the Year 1996, 1997, 2002
2 x European Footballer of the Year 1997, 2002
3 x World Soccer Player of the Year 1996, 1997, 2002

Just shows how much better footballers are today when a player with a record like that probably won't even make the top 10. You can all stick with your nostalgia bias and love in with the likes of van Basten.

cruiserweight

Did he not win the World Cup in 1994 as well?

Mark

50 players is too many, leads to these ridiculous inclusions.

1996/1997 Season :-- Barcelona (Spain) - 47 goals in 49 games.
! Christ I knew about his 34 odd in the league, but not the total tally. He really was unbelieveable that year, were it not for the knee injury preventing the recurrance of that sort of form who knows how many more he would have banged in.

Nunu

eirebhoy wrote:

1989/1990 Season :-- Social Ramos Club (Brazil) - 8 goals in 12 games.
1990/1993 Season :-- Sao Cristovao (Brazil) - 36 goals in 54 games.

Eireboy, what's the story with these clubs, he was hardly a pro then was he? In 1989 he was 12!

He was an unused squad member in Brasils 1994 win at the age of 17.

Despite the injuries he is still currently the best striker on the planet.

eirebhoy

Nunu wrote:

Eireboy, what's the story with these clubs, he was hardly a pro then was he? In 1989 he was 12!

He was an unused squad member in Brasils 1994 win at the age of 17.

Despite the injuries he is still currently the best striker on the planet.

Just googled. He was a pro in 89 yeah. Sounds odd saying that. He scored his first international goal at 17.