Ballon d’Or 2014 candidates
The candidates for the Ballon d’Or 2014 have been made known and although Messi, Ronaldo and Bale are in the group, Luis Suárez has been omitted.
The 23 man shortlist includes 5 players from the Premier League but not one English player among them.There isn’t room for the player that scored the most goals in the Premier League last season either – Luis Suárez.
The Uruguayan surely would have been a top contender for this year’s Ballon d’Or as his team narrowly missed out on the title which was won by Manchester City. What took Suárez out of the running was his actions at the World cup in Brazil when he bit Chiellini on the shoulder.
He was promptly slapped by a four month ban by FIFA that ended any possibility that the 27 year-old be included in the 23 man list for the ultimate award for a professional footballer on an individual basis.
Looking at the list, it looks like Messi and CR7 will once again go head to head for the coveted trophy. Ronaldo’s form this year puts him as the clear favourite as he helped Real Madrid win the “Décima” this year.
The 23-man list will be pruned down to just three players on 1st December, with the winner announced in Zurich on 12th January 2015.
Ballon D’or 2014 shortlist
Gareth Bale (Wales), Karim Benzema (France), Diego Costa (Spain), Thibaut Courtois (Belgium), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Angel Di Maria (Argentina), Mario Goetze (Germany), Eden Hazard (Belgium), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Toni Kroos (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Javier Mascherano (Argentina), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Mueller (Germany), Manuel Neuer (Germany), Neymar (Brazil), Paul Pogba (France), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), James Rodriguez (Colombia), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire).
