Barcelona duo Lionel Messi and Neymar will compete with current holder
Cristiano Ronaldo for this year’s FIFA Ballon d’Or, ESPN reports.
The FIFA Ballon d’Or ceremony takes place in Zurich on Jan 11, 2016.
Real Madrid forward Ronaldo has won the award for the past two years,
with Messi winning it for each of the four years previous to that. And
with Ronaldo named in 2008 too, one of the pair has been named the best
player in the world on the last seven occasions.
The only other player to make the top two of the final vote over that
seven-year period was Andres Iniesta in 2010, when Messi headed an all-
Barca shortlist that also included Xavi Hernandez.
Despite overtaking Raul to become Madrid’s all-time top goal scorer,
Ronaldo is seen as second favourite to make it three victories in a row
with the club winning no silverware in 2015, other than the Spanish Super
Cup.
Neymar, who is the top scorer in La Liga this season with 14 goals, is
considered the outsider of the three to win the Ballon d’Or in the first
year he has made the shortlist.
Ronaldo (45), Lionel Messi (44) and Neymar (41) have scored more goals in
all competitions in 2015 than any other player in Europe’s top 5 leagues.
Luis Suarez, the other member of Barca’s “MSN” attack, was also a strong
contender to make the final three, as was Bayern Munich’s Polish striker
Robert Lewandowski.
The final three has been reduced from an initial list of 23, with
Barcelona and Real Madrid providing almost half of those players.
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