“It is hard and to be honest I am not very anxious about that because as I said many times, I never thought I would win three times”.
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The award is given to the world’s best player over the calendar year, and each of the last seven prizes have been won by either Real Madrid’s Ronaldo or Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.
The former Manchester United hitman has won the gong for the last two years and is now within one of Messi’s record four.
Player of the Year (Men): Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, Portugal), Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Argentina), Neymar (Barcelona, Brazil).
The FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala takes place in Switzerland on 11 January, 2016, and the results will be out on the same day.
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23 players were nominated for the award organised by football’s governing body FIFA and France Football magazine, but that was whittled down to three when the announcement was made on Monday afternoon.
After scoring 15 times his first season in 2013-14, he scored 39 goals in 2014-15 for Barcelona, including against Juventus in the UEFA Champions League final.
National team captains, coaches and football journalists (one from each of FIFA’s members associations) chose the top three in each category, with the first choice getting five points, the second accruing three points and the third option claiming one point.
She is joined by Carli Lloyd of the U.S. squad that won the World Cup in Canada this past summer, as well as Aya Miyama of finalists Japan.
The candidates for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football and FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football awards have also been announced.
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Chile’s Jorge Sampaoli and Luis Enrique are the other nominees, deservedly so, having guided their teams to major success in the year, while Guardiola faltered when it mattered most, only winning the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.
