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This award is given to the best football player playing in Europe, and the laureate will be chosen next month by a certain number of European football journalists.
The list includes seven Brazilians, six French players, and players from the European champion Greece, five players each from Italy and Portugal. Among clubs, six players represent "Milan", five each play for Madrid's "Real", and "Barcelona" teams.
Last year, the "Ballon d'Or" was won by Czech Pavel Nedved, and among other candidates, "Real" players like Brazilian Ronaldo (1997 and 2002), Frenchman Zinedine Zidane (1998), and Portuguese Luis Figo (2000) have succeeded in doing so as well.
The full list of 50 candidates:
Adriano ("Inter") Ailton ("Schalke") Roberto Ayala ("Valencia") Ruben Baraja ("Valencia") Milan Baros ("Liverpool") Fabien Barthez ("Marseille") David Beckham ("Real") Gianluigi Buffon ("Juventus") Petr Cech ("Chelsea") Angelos Charisteas ("Werder") Deco ("Barcelona") Traianos Dellas ("Roma") Didier Drogba ("Chelsea") Emerson ("Juventus") Samuel Eto’o ("Barcelona") Luis Figo ("Real") Ludovic Giuly ("Barcelona") Thierry Henry ("Arsenal") Zlatan Ibrahimovic ("Juventus") Juninho Pernambucano ("Lyon") Kaka ("Milan") Michalis Kapsis ("Bordeaux") Frank Lampard ("Chelsea") Henrik Larsson ("Barcelona") Paolo Maldini ("Milan") Maniche ("Porto") Johan Micoud ("Werder") Mista ("Valencia") Fernando Morientes ("Real") Pavel Nedved ("Juventus") Alessandro Nesta ("Milan") Antonios Nikopolidis ("Olympiakos") Andrea Pirlo ("Milan") Jose Antonio Reyes ("Arsenal") Ricardo Carvalho ("Chelsea") Ronaldinho ("Barcelona") Ronaldo ("Real") Cristiano Ronaldo ("Man Utd") Wayne Rooney ("Man Utd") Tomas Rosicky ("Borussia") Paul Scholes ("Man Utd") Clarence Seedorf ("Milan") Giourkas Seitaridis ("Porto") Andriy Shevchenko ("Milan") Francesco Totti ("Roma") Ruud Van Nistelrooy ("Man Utd") Vicente ("Valencia") Patrick Vieira ("Arsenal") Theodoros Zagorakis ("Bologna") Zinedine Zidane ("Real")
