The three players are Spanish league players and they as follow: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid), Lionel Messi (Argentina/FC Barcelona) and Neymar (Brazil/FC Barcelona).
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Ronaldo won the award in 2014 and 2015, halting Messi’s record-breaking run of winning the Ballon d’or four years in a row.
Messi, whose best player award was determined by technical data, added: “I am happy to be once more among the three best, and to go to another gala”.
The Portugal worldwide might have finished the season without a trophy, but his individual talent shone out as he was La Liga’s highest scorer with 48 goals, and has notched up a leading seven in the Champions League this term.
The usual suspects will once again contest for the 2015 Fifa Men’s World Player of the Year award at the 2016 Ballon d’Or ceremony.
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The Uruguayan has been in sensational form for Barcelona and played a crucial part in Barcelona’s treble last season, scoring the victor in the decisive league clash with Real Madrid in March.
He said: “I’d have liked to be on [the] Ballon d’Or podium with Neymar and Luis”.
Neymar is expected by various people to be one of the successors to win this award once Messi and Ronaldo are out of consideration.
Meanwhile, Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola is pitted alongside Barcelona manager Luis Enrique and Chile manager Jorge Sampaoli as the nominees for the Coach of the Year. Meamwhile Ronaldo out-scored both of them netting 61.
Messi has scored 44 goals in 2015, with Suarez also contributing 40 to the 125 goals accrued by the world’s most feared front line. I think after we won the titles we deserved this recognition.
The shortlist for the women’s Ballon d’Or is Carli Lloyd (U.S.), Aya Niyama (Japan) and Celia Sasic (Germany).
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“I’ve always just played with the idea of continually getting better, to always surpass my goals, to always be better, play better, train better”, he said.
