5 Premier League players named on the 23-man Ballon d'Or shortlist
These footballers have been nominated for the most prestigious award in football...
Angel Di Maria, Diego Costa, Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and Yaya Toure are the only Premier League players to be named in the shortlist for the 2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or Award.
If you take into consideration that Di Maria, Costa and Courtois only started playing in the English top flight in August, that's a pretty poor reflection on "the best league in the world".
One notable omission is Barcelona striker Luis Suarez who won the English player of the year last season after a phenomenal campaign with Liverpool. We think that's a bit of a kick in the teeth for the Uruguay international.
Here's the full shortlist:
- Gareth Bale (Wales)
- Karim Benzema (France)
- Diego Costa (Spain)
- Thibaut Courtois (Belgium)
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
- Angel Di Maria (Argentina)
- Mario Gotze (Germany)
- Eden Hazard (Belgium)
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)
- Andres Iniesta (Spain)
- Toni Kroos (Germany)
- Philipp Lahm (Germany)
- Javier Mascherano (Argentina)
- Lionel Messi (Argentina)
- Thomas Mueller (Germany)
- Manuel Neuer (Germany)
- Neymar (Brazil)
- Paul Pogba (France)
- Sergio Ramos (Spain)
- Arjen Robben (Holland)
- James Rodriguez (Colombia)
- Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany)
- Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast)
Cristiano Ronaldo won the award last year and is favourite to reclaim it when the awards will be given out in Zürich on January 12, 2015.
