Nominees have been announced for the awards to be given out at "Fotbollsgalan 2004", the annual celebration for Swedish football. The ceremony will be held on November 14th, at the Hovet arena in Stockholm. The main prizes of the evening are the Golden Ball, awarded by Aftonbladet to the best Swedish male footballer, and the Diamond Ball awarded by the Sydsvenskan newspaper to the best female. Nominees will be announced at a later date. One prize will be decided by public televoting. TV4 will announce the nominees for Allsvenskan goal of the year at a later date, with the winner being decided by the fans. The remainder of the awards will have a male and female winner. To be eligible, a player must be Swedish, but can play either in Sweden or abroad. To win the male rookie of the year award, a player must play on an Allsvenskan side. The female rookie of the year can play on a team in the Damallsvenskan, or have made her first appearances for the women's national team during the past year. In each male category, there had to be at least 1 nominee from an Allsvenskan team. Nominees for the male awards were made by Lars Lagerbäck, the national team coach, Bengt Madsen (head of the Swedish elite football association), Per Ågren (head of the player's association), Stefan Lundin (Head of the coache's association), and Ola Wenström of TV4. The female jury was comprised of national team coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors, Susanne Erlandsson (Head of the women's elite football association), and Pontus Kåmark of TV4. The nominees are... (* denotes last year's winner) Best Goalkeeper Male: Mattias Asper, Malmö FF Andreas Isaksson, Stade Rennais* Jonas Sandqvist, Landskrona BoIS Female: Caroline Jönsson, Malmö FF* Hedvig Lindahl, Linköpings FC Maja Åström, Djurgården/Älvsjö Best Defender Male: Erik Edman, Tottenham Hotspur Olof Mellberg, Aston Villa* Alexander Östlund, Hammarby Female: Kristin Bengtsson, Djurgården/Älvsjö Hanna Marklund, Umeå IK Karolina Westberg, Malmö FF* Best Midfielder Male: Niclas Alexandersson, IFK Göteborg Fredrik Ljungberg, Arsenal* Christian Wilhelmsson, Anderlecht Female: Kristin Bengtsson, Djurgården/Älvsjö Malin Moström, Umeå IK* Therese Sjögran, Malmö FF Best Forward Male: Henrik Larsson, Barcelona* Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Juventus Markus Rosenberg, Halmstads BK Female: Sara Johansson, Djurgården/Älvsjö Lotta Schelin, Kopparbergs/Göteborg Victoria Svensson, Djurgården/Älvsjö* Rookie of the Year Male: Petter Andersson, Hammarby Tobias Hysén, Djurgårdens IF George Mourad, IFK Göteborg Female: Nilla Fischer, Malmö FF Hedvig Lindahl, Linköpings FC Lotta Schelin, Kopparbergs/Göteborg Coach of the Year Male Teams: Jan Andersson, Halmstads BK Hans Backe, FC København Bo Johansson, IFK Göteborg Tom Prahl, Malmö FF Female Teams: Michael Bornehav, Linköpings FC Thomas Dennerby, Djurgården/Älvsjö Krister Engström, Mallbackens IF Andrée Jeglertz, Umeå IK
The winners from last night's Fotbollsgalan, the end of season Swedish awards ceremony: Guldbollen (Male Player of the Year)- Henrik Larsson (his 2nd win, also getting the award in 1998) Diamantbollen (Female Player of the Year)- Kristin Bengtsson (her 2nd win, also winning in 1994) Best Goalkeeper- Hedvig Lindahl & Andreas Isaksson (He also won last year) Best Defender- Kristin Bengtsson & Erik Edman Best Midfielder- Malin Moström & Fredrik Ljungberg (Both also won last year. This was Ljungberg's 4th Best Midfielder award in a row, and his 5th overall) Best Forward- Victoria Svensson & Henrik Larsson (Both won last year, Larsson gets his 4th award in a row, 4th overall for best Forward) Newcomer of the Year- Lotta Schelin & Tobias Hysén Coach of the Year- Thomas Dennerby (woman's team) & Jan Andersson (men's team) Goal of the Year (TV4 televote)- Marta