The 23-man shortlist for this year's Ballon d'Or award
will be reduced to just three players later this
afternoon by a group of football experts from the FIFA
Football Committee and France Football.

Gareth Bale, the only Briton on the
list, is one of six players from Real
Madrid which includes last year’s
winner and favourite Cristiano
Ronaldo.
La Liga rivals Barcelona have four
players nominated, including four-
time winner Lionel Messi.
There are six players from the
Bundesliga, are all from Bayern
Munich, with goalkeeper Manuel
Neuer expected to be the biggest
challenge to Ronaldo and Messi.
The Premier League has five
representatives, Chelsea trio
Thiabaut Courtois, Eden Hazard
and Diego Costa, Manchester City’s
Yaya Toure and Manchester United
winger Angel di Maria.
Paris St German striker Zlatan
Ibrahimovic is the only player in
France to be nominated, while Paul
Pogba of Juventus is the sole
representative from Serie A.
FIFA wil reveal the winner
of football's biggest award at
the Ballon d’Or gala in Zurich on
January 12.
Ballon d’Or nominations: Gareth
Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim
Benzema, Lionel Messi, Thibaut
Courtois, Eden Hazard, Diego
Costa, Angel di Maria, Yaya
Toure, Mario Gotze, Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, Andres Iniesta, Toni
Kroos, Philipp Lahm, Javier
Mascherano, Thomas
Muller, Manuel
Neuer, Neymar, Paul Pogba, Sergio
Ramos, Arjen Robben, James
Rodriguez, Bastian Schweinsteiger.

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