Ballon d'or 2007

Here are the 50 candidates :


Eric Abidal (Barcelona), France.
Daniel Alves (Sevilla), Brazil.
David Beckham (LA Galaxy), England.
Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham), Bulgaria.
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Italy.
Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Italy.
Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Spain.
Petr Cech (Chelsea), Czech Republic.
Rogerio Ceni (San Paolo), Brazil.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Portugal.
Deco (Barcelona), Portugal.
Mahamadou Diarra (Real Madrid), Mali.
Diego (Werder Bremen), Brazil.
Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Ivory Coast.
Michael Essien (Chelsea), Ghana.
Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona), Cameroon.
Francesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Spain.
Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Italy.
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), England.
Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Wales.
Thierry Henry (Barcelona), France.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter), Sweden.
Filippo Inzaghi (Milan), Italy.
Kaka` (Milan), Brazil.
Frederic Kanoute` (Sevilla), Mali.
Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich), Germany.
Younis Mahmoud (Algharafa), Iraq.
Paolo Maldini (Milan), Italy.
Florent Malouda (Chelsea), France.
Lionel Andres Messi (Barcelona), Argentina.
Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic), Japan.
Guillermo Ochoa (America Mexico), Mexico.
Andrea Pirlo (Milan), Italy.
Ricardo Quaresma (Porto), Portugal.
Raul (Real Madrid), Spain.
Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), France.
Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal), Argentina.
Robinho (Real Madrid), Brazil.
Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Brazil.
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), England.
Paul Scholes (Manchester United), England.
Clarence Seedorf (Milan), Holland.
Carlos Tevez (Manchester United), Argentina.
Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Italy.
Kolo Toure` (Arsenal), Ivory Coast.
Jose` Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Spain.
Francesco Totti (Roma), Italy.
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), Holland.
Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Holland.
David Villa (Valencia), Spain.

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Italians lead the list with 8 candidates. There are 7 Brasilians and 5 Spanish players.
There are 32 Europeans, 10 South/North Americans, 6 Africans and 2 Asians on the list.
Milan,Barcelona and Real Madrid have 6 of their players on the list.

Group of European football journalists vote. Each voter chooses five players from the list and awards them one, two, three, four and five points.


My choice would be :

5pts: Kaka
4ptS :Ibrahimovic
3pts: Messi
2pts:Cristiano Ronaldo
1pt: Drogba or Totti

5 pts - Kaka
4 pts - Messi
3 pts - Ronaldo
2 pts - Drogba
1 pt - Ibra

5 pts Kaka
4 pts Totti
3 pts Drogba
2 pts Ibra
1 pt Messi

5pts Kaka
4pts Pirlo
3pts Totti
2pts Messi
1pt Ibra

No Sandro Nesta and there is Maldini? sigh..

Drogba
Kaka
Ronaldo
Messi
Rooney

Ibrahimovic is my pick to win it, not just beause hes on inter, but hes proved what a great player he is, hes top scorer, and is able to provide each time he stps onto the pitch, i would be dissapointed to see totti take that..Ibrahimovic should take it.

Originally Posted by RECOBA

Ibrahimovic is my pick to win it, not just beause hes on inter, but hes proved what a great player he is, hes top scorer, and is able to provide each time he stps onto the pitch, i would be dissapointed to see totti take that..Ibrahimovic should take it.

He may be the one who was the best in Europe according to you, but you can be sure that only 1 man can and will win it : Kaka

Rino once said in an interview that if Kaka doesn't win the Golden Ball he'll buy it for him, and now Galliani's declared it will be the end of the world if he doesn't win it. France Football, plz save us from the Apocalypse. Give the thing to Ricky.

I'm never sure of the period of time for which these footballers are being judged.

Is it 2006-2007 season or just everything that's happened from Jan 1st 2007 until now?

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

I'm never sure of the period of time for which these footballers are being judged.

Is it 2006-2007 season or just everything that's happened from Jan 1st 2007 until now?

Jamie I wanted to ask this question too , maybe someone who knows it can let us know ?

I assumed it was the last season, though i may be wrong.

No, no
Only the year. From January 1st till mid December. Matches/performances from the first part of the season 2006/07 don't count.

i don't understand why half of those players are on that list.

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

i don't understand why half of those players are on that list.

It's always like that Jim.
It's known who's gonna win this (Kaka). It's well known which players will be among the 5-10 best, so the other 40 players are there mostly due to some marketing reasons (the 2 Asians) or because of their name (Cannavaro, Giggs, Torres) or simply because of their nationality ( there should always be few Eastern Europeans, few Asians, Africans etc).

The list is indeed strange. The greatest players of 2007 are there, but to put some of these players on the list is ridiculous