FIFA Ballon d’Or Nominees 2012

Ridiculous having 23 players on the list; surely a top 10 would be a reasonable starting point. Some odd choices too – e.g. Rooney?

No Whittingham either.

Sergio Agüero (Argentina), Xabi Alonso (Spain),Mario Balotelli (Italy), Karim Benzema (France), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Sergio Busquets (Spain), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Radamel Falcao (Colombia), Zlatan Ibrahimović (Sweden), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Manuel Neuer (Germany), Neymar (Brazil), Mesut Özil (Germany), Gerard Piqué (Spain), Andrea Pirlo (Italy),
Sergio Ramos (Spain), Wayne Rooney (England), Yaya Touré (Côte d’Ivoire), Robin van Persie (Netherlands), Xavi (Spain).

http://www.fifa.com/ballondor/media/newsid=1798663/index.html

How can FIFA and UEFA claim any credibility without including Whittingham?

We need a breakaway federation.

Balotelli? Really?

Rooneys appearance would probably be thanks to the pressure we'd apply in FIFA to include us. Though I'd say if you had to put an Englishman in, Gerrard is a better option. Not saying he's win, he's just the best player we have realistically.

And I don't mean to ruin it for you guys, but I've been to te future. And we'll, Messi won. Don't all gasp at once.

Yup, even the long list should really have only one name on it.

Ronaldo's innards must be twisting inside.

I think Rooney is a better player than Gerrard, he's done nothing of any real note for years.

RE Balotelli, is he in because he is black? And I don't mean to be controversial, but is this possible?

Oh and for the record I think Ronaldo will win it this year.

So are Neymar and Drogba, so I don't think that's the reason. Probably remain a mystery like most things around FIFA do.

As is Yaya, but I dunno if they just put in another black player to make the ratio a bit closer. Like you say, it's Fifa, so I doubt that's actually out of all realms of possibilities.

The Qataris paid for his nomination, probably.