Ivan Rakitić on FIFA’s World Player of the Year Shortlist

by croatiaweek
October 20, 2015
in Sport

One Croat has made the final shortlist for football’s premier award – the Ballon d’Or…

Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitić is in the final list of 23 candidates for this year’s ‘Golden Ball’.

Real Madrid’s Luka Modrić was originally in the running but he was not included in the shortlist released today.

The award started in 2010 after France Football’s Ballon d’Or and the men’s FIFA World Player of the Year award were merged. The winner of the inaugural 2010 FIFA Ballon d’Or was Lionel Messi who then went on to reclaim the title the following two years.

The award has been dominated by Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as part of their ongoing rivalry. As of 2014, Ronaldo is the most recent recipient of the FIFA Ballon d’Or, after beating Messi and Manuel Neuer to the award

23 Nominees for World Player of the Year

Sergio Agüero (Manchester City)

Gareth Bale (Real Madrid)

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)

Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg/Manchester City)

Eden Hazard (Chelsea)

Zlatan Ibrahimović (Paris Saint-Germain)

Andres Iniesta (Barcelona)

Toni Kroos (Real Madrid)

Robert Lewandowski (Bayern)

Javier Mascherano (Barcelona)

Lionel Messi (Barcelona)