Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are among the 23 players shortlisted for Fifa’s annual World Player of the Year award.

Portugal winger Ronaldo’s goals helped Manchester United win the English Premier League and the Champions League last season, while Messi, who plays his club football for Barcelona in Spain, inspired Argentina to winning the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Ronaldo finished third in the voting last year, with Messi as the runner-up to Brazil forward Kaka of AC Milan.

Six members of Spain’s European Championship-winning team – Iker Casillas, Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta, Fernando Torres, David Villa and Xavi Hernandez – are also chasing world football’s most-prized individual award.

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Kaka is in contention again, as are three strikers from African nations: Emmanuel Adebayor of Togo, Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast and Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, who placed third in 2005.

There are 10 women on Fifa’s shortlist for the top female player, including Brazilian Marta, Birgit Prinz of Germany and the American duo of Hope Solo and Shannon Boxx.

The lists of candidates were drawn up by a team of experts assembled by football’s world governing body.

Voting is done by head coaches and captains of men’s and women’s national teams.

Three finalists in each category will be named in December, and the winners’ names will be announced at a gala event in the Zurich Opera House on January 12.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid defender Gabriel Heinze has branded Alex Ferguson’s theory about why the Spanish club signed him as “science fiction”.

The United manager on Tuesday accused the Spanish giants of signing the Argentinian in 2007 in order to tempt Ronaldo to follow his close friend out of Old Trafford.

“This theory of Ferguson’s – that I went to Real so the club could persuade Cristiano (to sign) the following summer – is a work of absolute science fiction,” the British daily the Guardian yesterday quoted Heinze as saying.

“Cristiano is a clever person and he decides for himself what is best for his life. I am a very good friend of his, that is true, but he always decides his own future.”

Ronaldo was courted by the Spanish Primera Liga champions during the close season after he had let slip that he would like to join them in future, but the 23-year-old FIFpro Player of the Year finally ended the speculation just before the start of the 2008-09 campaign in August by committing himself to United’s cause.

Earlier this week, the Portugal winger said he had made the right decision to stay, adding that he expected to be at Old Trafford beyond this season. – Sapa-AFP-Reuters

WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR NOMINEES

Emmanuel Adebayor (Tog), Sergio Aguero (Arg), Andrei Arshavin (Rus), Michael Ballack (Ger), Gianluigi Buffon (Ita), Iker Casillas (Esp), Deco (Por), Didier Drogba (Cod), Samuel Eto’o (Cmr), Cesc Fabregas (Esp), Steven Gerrard (Eng), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Swe), Andres Iniesta (Esp), Kaka (Bra), Frank Lampard (Eng), Lionel Messi (Arg), Franck Ribery (Fra), Cristiano Ronaldo (Por), John Terry (Eng), Fernando Torres (Esp), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Ned), David Villa (Esp), Xavi Hernandez (Esp)

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Cristiano Ronaldo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.