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FIFA have announced the final three nominees for the 2015 Ballon d’Or – Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Brazilian forward Neymar Jr. FIFA announced the 23-man shortlist back in October and the voting for the same began on 26 October and went on till 20 November. Once the voting was complete, the counting of votes took place, and the results of the voting were announced today.
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The people who participate in the final voting phase include captains and head coaches of the men’s national teams and international media representatives selected by France Football.
Lionel Messi, as suspected was among the three nominations after leading the Blaugranes to a historic treble of the UEFA Champions League, La Liga and Copa Del Rey last season. He also led Argentina to the Copa America final where they finished runners-up. He scored a total of 65 goals in a total of 68 games (both club and country) and gave 29 assists in the process as well.
Neymar was Messi’s partner in crime at Barcelona and also topped the Champions League goalscoring charts with his Argentine teammate, scoring 10 goals last season. Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo scored 61 goals in 56 matches to win a fourth European Golden Shoe.
The nominees for the FIFA Puskas Award were also announced. The goals selected were Alessandro Florenzi’s goal against Barcelona in the Champions League from near the half-line, Wendell Lira against Goianesia and Lionel Messi’s goal against Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final.
The three coaches nominated for the Coach of the Year include Barcelona coach Luis Enrique, Bayern Munich Pep Guardiola and Chile’s Copa America winning coach Jorge Sampaoli.
The FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year nominees include Carli lloyd (USA) who won the Women’s World Cup, Japan’s Aya Miyama and Celia Sasic of Germany.
The awards for all categories will be given away in a ceremony in Zurich on 11 January 2016.
