Golden Ball Nominees

[Haribo]

Zinedine Zidane is among the nominees for Fifa's prestigious Golden Ball award, given to the most valuable player at the 2006 World Cup.
The France playmaker ends his career in Sunday's World Cup final against Italy.

The 10 nominees include four Italians, Fabio Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo, Gianluca Zambrotta and Gianluigi Buffon.

Zidane's compatriots Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira are on the list as are Germany's Michael Ballack and Miroslav Klose and Portugal's Maniche.

Germany goalkeeper Oliver Khan won the award at the 2002 World Cup, while Brazil's Ronaldo was the winner in 1998.

Fifa will announce its final decision on Monday at around 0900 BST.


Full list of nominations:

Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Maniche (Portugal), Michael Ballack (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy), Thierry Henry (France), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Patrick Vieira (France), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Zinedine Zidane (France)

Source


Tough to call really, but out of those I think Cannavaro has played the best.

[ads]

Cannavaro for me too.

[Bish]

1st Cannavaro (easily)
2nd Klose
3rd Vieria

[Huw]

Cannavaro for me too - but how come Ballack is on that list ? I think he has consistently underperformed

[Rangers_Fureva]

I'd say Cannavaro deserves it. He has been solid at the back for Italy, and hasn't really showed bad sportsmanship. Miroslav Klose a close 2nd.

[Barry]

I rather see midfielders and attackers play, although Cannavaro has been excellent. Pirlo otherwise.

Vieira? Henry? Played below their level.

[Haribo]

Strange to me how they've included Zambrotta, but not the other outstanding fullback in the World Cup, Lahm.

[Gun_Runner]

dunno why Zambrotta or Henry are there? fair enough they've been alright - nothing special though. I think Gattuso instead of Zambrotta would have been just and Lahm instead of Henry.

1. Cannavaro
2. Zidane(hes carried France and won them the game last night)
3. Klose

[Cali]

1. Cannavaro
2. Zidane
3. Zambrotta

[Nedy]

Cannavaro for me. If not, Zambrotta and Vieira did an excellent WC too.

[Paul B]

Lahm is far more deserving of a place in there than Ballack, hell he'd be in my top 3 which funnily enough would probably contain the other 2 defensive players in the list.

Not convinced by Vieira's inclusion either, but I just think the French team has got progressively better as a whole, with the exception of last night perhaps.

[Singh]

Zinedine Zidane Or Cannavaro.

[Yi-Long]

Ridiculous that henry and Zidane are on that list. Zidane has played 1,5 good match in this whole tournament, and Henry has been way under his potential. Ridiculous nominees...

And where is Lahm indeed?

Fifa just wants to select big-name players so they wont have to admit that this world cup has been a failure for the bigger teams, when you look at how they've played.

Maniche has been very good indeed. Also didnt seem to participate in all the playacting alot of his teammates were guilty of.

For me, players like Dwight Yorke and a bunch of players from Ghana and Ivory Coast stood out. Van Persie and Vd Sar were the best Dutch players.

Anyway, it's a ridiculous list, so for me whoever wins it doesnt matter to me anymore. Zidane and Henry are clear examples of just being nominated because of their reputation, instead of on how they've actually played this tournament. Which is ridiculous.

What a fucking joke.

[Glavisted]

I think it's too close and depends very much to the final yet, definitely. I think should be between Fabio Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo, Gianluigi Buffon, Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Miroslav Klose.

[Lorenzinho]

Don't think Zidane deserves it to be honest.