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The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has on Monday announced the contenders for the FIFA Ballon d’Or Award for the best player of 2015 and for the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year 2015 Award.
The list that was first released on FIFA.com, had the nominees listed in alphabetical order: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid), Lionel Messi (Argentina/FC Barcelona) and Neymar (Brazil/FC Barcelona).
Meanwhile, Carli Lloyd (USA/Houston Dash), Aya Miyama (Japan/Okayama Yunogo Belle), and Célia Šašić (Germany/1. FFC Frankfurt) are in the running for the women’s award.
The candidates for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football and FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football awards have also been announced. In alphabetical order, the contenders are:
Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Bayern Munich), Luis Enrique Martínez (Spain/FC Barcelona), Jorge Sampaoli (Argentina/Chilean national team) for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football award; and Jill Ellis (USA/USA national team), Mark Sampson (Wales/English national team) and Norio Sasaki (Japan/Japanese national team) for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football award.
All of the nominees were confirmed after a voting process, which was open to the captains and head coaches of the men and women’s national teams of the 207 member associations as well as international media representatives selected by FIFA and France Football.
The percentages of the collected votes are as follows (number of votes/number of associations):
Voting for men’s awards: 165
Member associations (captains & coaches): 79.71%
Media representatives: 88.60%
Voting for women’s awards: 136
Member associations (captains & coaches): 76,83%
Media representatives: 80.92%
The voting procedure for each of the awards was supervised and monitored by the independent observer PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Switzerland.
In addition, the three nominees for the FIFA Puskás Award for the “most beautiful goal of the year” were announced. The three final goals are: Alessandro Florenzi – 16.09.2015, AS Roma – FC Barcelona, UEFA Champions League / Wendell Lira – 11.03.2015, Atletico-GO –Goianesia, Campeonato Goiano (Brazil) / Lionel Messi – 30.05.2015, Athletic Bilbao - FC Barcelona, Copa del Rey (Spain).
All of the awards will be presented at the FIFA Ballon d’Or award ceremony at theKongresshaus in Zurich on 11 January 2016 during a televised show, which will equally be streamed live on FIFA.com and FIFA on YouTube.
The award has been dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as part of their ongoing rivalry.
Ronaldo is the most recent recipient of the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2014, after beating Messi and Manuel Neuer to the award.
Tag: Pep Guardiola
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Breaking: FIFA releases list of nominees for Ballon d’Or Award
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Guardiola focused on Bayern
Pep Guardiola is reading nothing into Bayern Munich’s 7-1 win over Roma ahead of tonight’s reverse fixture at the Allianz Arena.
The Bayern coach saw his side run riot at the Stadio Olimpico last month in the sides’ UEFA Champions League Group E encounter, as the German champions surged into a 5-0 half-time lead.
Further goals from Franck Ribery and Xherdan Shaqiri late on ensured Bayern’s biggest away win in UEFA competition and put them on the verge of the last 16.
Victory at the Allianz Arena will see Bayern through but Guardiola insists his side must approach the game in the right manner.
“It’s a different game. We’re focused on the massive chance we have to progress to the next round,” he said on Tuesday.
“We start at 0-0. This is a new game and we must focus on our style of play to reach the next phase.
“[Roma] have their pride and will not want to lose the game again. They have a very good and youthful side who can impose their game on you if you give them too much room.
“We’re playing better than I thought we would, but we’re not quite at the level where I want us to be.”