The European Football of the Year Nominations have been anounced. Eleven British-based footballers are on the 50-strong short-list for the European Footballer of the Year. A list dominated by eight nominations for Real Madrid players - including England captain David Beckham - also contains five from Arsenal, two from Manchester United, two from Chelsea, one from Liverpool and one from Celtic. Brazilian striker Ronaldo, who won last year's award on the back of his performances in the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea, is again in contention. Champions League holders AC Milan have five players represented, Juventus have six. The winner of the poll, organised by France Football magazine, will be announced next month. The Nominees- Pablo Aimar (Valencia) Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich) David Beckham (Real Madrid) Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus) Sol Campbell (Arsenal) Iker Casillas (Real Madrid) Cristian Chivu (Roma) Deco (Porto) Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) Dida (AC Milan) Giovane Elber (Lyon) Samuel Eto'o (Mallorca) Luis Figo (Real Madrid) Ludovic Giuly (Monaco) Thierry Henry (Arsenal) Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Ajax) Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan) Oliver Kahn (Bayern Munich) Patrick Kluivert (Barcelona) Jan Koller (Borussia Dortmund) Darko Kovacevic (Real Sociedad) Henrik Larsson (Celtic) Roy Makaay (Bayern Munich) Claude Makelele (Chelsea) Paolo Maldini (AC Milan) Adrian Mutu (Chelsea) Pavel Nedved (Juventus) Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan) Nihat Kahveci (Real Sociedad) Michael Owen (Liverpool) Pauleta (Paris St Germain) Robert Pires (Arsenal) Raul Gonzalez (Real Madrid) Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid) Ronaldinho (Barcelona) Ronaldo (Real Madrid) Michel Salgado (Real Madrid) Paul Scholes (Manchester United) Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan) Lilian Thuram (Juventus) Francesco Toldo (Inter Milan) Francesco Totti (Roma) Hatem Trabelsi (Ajax) David Trezeguet (Juventus) Ruud Van Nistelrooy (Manchester United) Patrick Vieira (Arsenal) Christian Vieri (Inter Milan) Sylvain Wiltord (Arsenal) Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus) Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid)
Looks like a who's who of world soccer. Kind of pointless to narrow down a list to 50 players. Wouldn't it make more sense to narrow it down to 10? A couple of people stand out to me - Ronaldo Ronaldihno Beckham Nedved Zidane Ballack Buffon Shevechenko Inzaghi
I think the 10 candidates for runner up are: Nedved Ronaldo Shevchenko Vieri Ballack Henry Makaay Buffon Zidane Raul ...and the winner is... Ruud van Nistelrooy
On second thought, Nedved probably has just as good a chance of winning as RVN. He is such a dominant and influential player.
Luther_Gabriel and jd2084, how can you both omit Maldini and Nesta from your top ten. They were the best defenders last year. Unless you are trying to say that defenders can't be the player of the year(which I find ridiculous). And even though Sheva is my favorite player, I have to admit that he doesn't deserve to be in the top ten for his performance last year. He was hurt for a long portion of the season and didn't hit form until the end of the season. Although, he has started this season superbly and will be in the running for major awards next season. But he won't win any because Ukraine will not be in Euro 2004.
You are right, I should have included Maldini and/or Nesta. When I was thinking about last season, Milan's great Champions League victory stuck out in my mind and Shevchenko delivered clutch performances in the knockout rounds and the final. But as you pointed out, he was injured much of the year and did not have a good Serie A season. Inzaghi was more consistant the whole season. I do not think that defenders can't be player of the year and Maldini and Nesta are two of my favorite players. I was just a little hasty in making my list and I made a mistake. Even though Sheva will not get the opportunity to participate in EURO2004, I think that if he had a good enough season for Milan he could still win the award next year. Unless someone like Raul, Vieri, or Van Nistelrooy totally dominates in Portugal, Sheva still has a chance.