Ten Premier League players have been included in the short-list for FIFA's World Player of the Year award. The list is made up of 23 players from all around the world that will eventually be whittled down to just three in December.
The winner will be decided by national team captains and coaches and the winner of the award will be announced at a ceremony in Zurich in January. Cristiano Ronaldo is the hot favourite to take the award after he was recently awarded with the FIFPro world player of the year.
AC Milan's Kaka won the award last year with Real Madrid's Fabio Cannavaro winning it the year before. In total, 20 European players have been nominated along with 3 South Americans and 3 Africans. Here is the list in full :
Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo), Sergio Aguero (Argentina), Andrei Arshavin (Russia), Michael Ballack (Germany), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas (Spain), Deco (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Steven Gerrard (England), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)
Andres Iniesta (Spain), Kaka (Brazil), Frank Lampard (England), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Franck Ribery (France), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), John Terry (England), Fernando Torres (Spain), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands), David Villa (Spain) and Xavi (Spain).
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