FIFA shortlists Drogba, Toure for Ballon d’Or

Drogba in action for Shangai Shenhua

World football governing body, FIFA, on Monday released the names of 23 players shortlisted for the 2012 FIFA Balon d' Or with two Ivoriens, Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure make the list. 

The list dominated by Spaniards, seven in all, also has three Italians, two Argentines, two Germans, one each from Portugal, brazil, Holland, France, Sweden and Colombia.

The shortlisted Spaniards are Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Iker Casillas, Andrés Iniesta,Gerard Piqué, Xavi and Sergio Ramos. The three Italians are Mario Balotelli, Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo. The two Germans that made the list are Manuel Neuer and Mesut Özil, while Sergio Agüero and Lionel Messi were the two Argentines that made the list. Others are Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Radamel Falcao (Colombia), Karim Benzema (France), Zlatan Ibrahimović (Sweden), Wayne Rooney (England), Robin van Persie (Netherlands), and Neymar (Brazil).

According to FIFA, the list would be reduced to three on November 29, 2012. The three will be those who have received the highest votes from coaches and national football team captains all over the world. FIFA said that the winners of all of the awards would be revealed at the FIFA Ballon d’Or gala at the Zurich Kongresshaus on 7 January 2013, during which the FIFA FIFPro World XI, the FIFA Puskás Award – for the most beautiful goal of the year – the FIFA Presidential Award and the FIFA Fair Play Award will also be presented.

"The list of 23 male candidates has been drawn up by football experts from the FIFA Football Committee and by a group of experts from France Football. The list of 10 coaches has been drawn up by the Committee for Women’s Football and FIFA Women’s World Cup and by the FIFA Football Committee, as well as by a group of experts from France Football,"

FIFA noted in the statement. The coaches listed are Vicente del Bosque (Spain/Spain national team), Roberto Di Matteo (Italy/Chelsea FC), Alex Ferguson (Scotland/Manchester United FC), Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Barcelona former coach), Jupp Heynckes (Germany/FC Bayern München), Jürgen Klopp (Germany/Borussia Dortmund), Joachim Löw (Germany/Germany national team), Roberto Mancini (Italy/Manchester City FC), José Mourinho (Portugal/Real Madrid CF), Cesare Prandelli (Italy/Italy national team).