2015 Ballon d’Or: FIFA Unveils Shortlisted Players

World football governing body, FIFA has unveiled the 23-man shortlist for the 2015 Ballon d’Or. Once again, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are primed to slug it out.

The winner of the FIFA Ballon d’Or award goes to the best player in the calendar year and is usually decided by captains and head coaches of national teams as well as media representatives.

The 23-man list consists of 5 English Premier League players, 11 La Liga players, 5 Bundesliga players and 1 player each from Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1.

Here’s the shortlist of nominees:

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City/Argentina)

Gareth Bale (Real Madrid/Wales)

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid/France)

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City/Belgium)

Eden Hazard (Chelsea/Belgium)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain/Sweden)

Andres Iniesta (Barcelona/Spain)

Toni Kroos (Real Madrid/Germany)

Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich/Poland)

Javier Mascherano (Barcelona/Argentina)

Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)

Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich/Germany)

Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich/Germany)

Neymar (Barcelona/Brazil)

Paul Pogba (Juventus/France)

Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona/Croatia)

Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich/Netherlands)

James Rodriguez (Real Madrid/Colombia)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)

Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal/Chile)

Luis Suarez (Barcelona/Uruguay)

Yaya Toure (Manchester City/Ivory Coast)

Arturo Vidal (Bayern Munich/Chile)

The award ceremony will hold on Monday, January 11. 2016 in Zurich.