Messi, Ronaldo, Neuer shortlisted for FIFA Ballon d’Or

Enyeama, Musa among five nominees for CAF Awards
CRISTIANO Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer make up the final shortlist for the 2014 FIFA Ballon d’Or award.
  The 23-man shortlist was reduced by experts from the FIFA Football Committee and France Football yesterday.
 Ronaldo, the 2013 winner, remains on course to retain the title after a sparkling year in which he celebrated Champions League success with Real Madrid.
  Four-time winner, Messi, continues his duel with the Portugal captain, with the duo almost exclusively battling for football’s biggest individual accolade for the last six years.


  Bayern Munich shot-stopper, Neuer, is looking to crash the party and become the first goalkeeper to win the award since Lev Yashin in 1963 after his integral role in Germany’s World Cup success and another sublime league-winning season with the Bavarian giants.
  Carlo Ancelotti, Diego Simeone and Joachim Low make up the three-man shortlist for the coach of the year award after their respective Champions League, La Liga and World Cup triumphs.
  Ireland’s Stephanie Roche, James Rodriguez and Robin van Persie have seen their brilliant efforts nominated for the Puskas Award for the best goal of 2014.
  For the CAF African Footballer of the Year Awards, Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama and Ahmed Musa, are among the five shortlisted for the trophy currently held by Cote d’Ivoire’s Yaya Toure. The other players in the five-man short list are Toure, Asamoah Gyan of Ghana and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Gabon.
 Enyeama and Musa enjoyed a fine run at the World Cup in Brazil, but Manchester City star, Toure, has won the prestigious award for the past three years.
  There are also two Nigerian stars for the women’s version of the award – Asisat Oshoala and Desire Oparanozie. They will battle Annette Ngo Ndom of Cameroun, Portia Modise of South Africa and Zenatha Coleman of Namibia for Woman Player of the Year.
The Youth Player of the Year has Oshoala and Uchechi Sunday from Nigeria, Fabrice Ondoa of Cameroun and Kader Bidimbou of Congo Brazzaville as nominees.
 In the African Player of the Year (Based in Africa) category, the five shortlisted players are the duo of Akram Djahnit   and El Hedi Belamieri of Algeria and ES Setif, Firmin Mubel Ndombe of Congo and AS Vita, Fakhereddine Ben Youssef of Tunisia and CS Sfaxien and late Senso Meyiwa of South Africa and Orlando Pirates.
  For Most promising Talent Award, the shortlisted players are Clinton N’jie of Cameroon and Olympic Lyon, Mubele Ndombe of Congo DR and AS VIta, Vincent Aboubakar of Cameroon and FC Porto and Yacini Brahimi of Algeria and also FC Porto
 Florent Mbenge, Kherireddine Madoui of Algeria, Rigo Gervais of Cote D’Ivoire, Stephen Keshi of Nigeria and Vahid Halilhdzich of Bosnia and Algeria were nominated for Coach of the Year.
  Other nominees are the trio of Nigeria, Algeria and Libya listed for National Team of the Year, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Nigeria U-20 for Women’s National Team of the Year and Club of the Year with Al-Ahly of Egypt, AS Vita of Congo, ES Setif of Algeria and Sewe Sports of Cote d’Ivoire as nominees.
  The winners will be decided by votes from the head coaches and technical directors of the national associations affiliated to CAF.
 The Glo-CAF Awards Gala night will take place on Thursday January 8, 2015 in Lagos, Nigeria.

Source: guardian