Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, laments after missing a goal during their Spanish La Liga soccer match, between SD Eibar and Real Madrid, at Ipurua stadium in Eibar, northern Spain, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015.
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The battle for supremacy between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will continue, with Neymar joining the pair in the final three.
He was leading scorer in all European competitions in 2015, and scored in each leg of Real Madrid’s defeat to Juventus in the last four of the Champions League.
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 although Neymar now has a chance to add the Ballon d’Or to his CV and become the first man outside of Messi or Ronaldo to win it since Kaka in 2007, he insists that team trophies and improving his game will always be more important. Suarez has also had a brilliant year, scoring 40 goals and assisting a further 23 for his teammates, but he did not make the cut.
The comments came after Isco was sent off for a late tackle on Neymar during the closing stages of Barcelona’s 4-0 La Liga win at the Santiago Bernabeu earlier this month.
The victor will be revealed at a gala ceremony in Zurich on January 11.
Luis Enrique, who coaches Messi and Neymar at Barcelona, heads the shortlist for the coach of year award, along with Bayern Munich’s Pep Guardiola and Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli.
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Mark Sampson is in contention for Fifa’s women’s football world coach of the year after guiding England to third place at this year’s World Cup.
