© EuroFootball.com
The French magazine "France Football" on Monday announced the list of 50 candidates for the prestigious "Golden Ball" (Ballon D'Or) award, which will crown the best European football player of 2005.
The most represented club is the Italian champions Juventus, with nine players on the list, followed by the strongest English club Chelsea with seven representatives, one less than the famous Real Madrid. Barcelona and AC Milan each have five players in the list.
According to leagues, sixteen of the players on the list play in the Italian Serie A and the English Premier League, thirteen players in the Spanish La Liga, three in the French Ligue 1, and two in the German Bundesliga. All these four leagues are represented by twelve clubs.
Interestingly, all five previous winners - Luis Figo (2000), Michael Owen (2001), Ronaldo (2002), Pavel Nedved (2003), and Andriy Shevchenko (2004) - are included in the list.
The winner of the 50th "Golden Ball" will be selected, as always, by European football journalists in the "France Football" polls.
Candidates for the "Golden Ball" include:
- Adriano (Inter)
- Michael Ballack (Bayern)
- David Beckham (Real)
- 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 (Inter)
- 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)
- Claude Makelele (Chelsea)
- Paolo Maldini (Milan)
- Pavel Nedved (Juventus)
- Michael Owen (Newcastle)
- Park Ji-Sung (Man Utd)
- Andrea Pirlo (Milan)
- Raul (Real)
- Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal)
- Arjen Robben (Chelsea)
- Roberto Carlos (Real)
- Robinho (Real)
- Ronaldinho (Barcelona)
- Ronaldo (Real)
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd)
- Wayne Rooney (Man Utd)
- Andrei Shevchenko (Milan)
- John Terry (Chelsea)
- Lilian Thuram (Juventus)
- David Trezeguet (Juventus)
- Marc van Bommel (Barcelona)
- Ruud van Nistelrooy (Man Utd)
- Patrick Vieira (Juventus)
- Xavi (Barcelona)
- Zinedine Zidane (Real)
