Monday, October 20, 2008

Gerrard And Torres Up For European Footballer Honour

FERNANDO TORRES and Steven Gerrard have both been shortlisted for this year’s European Footballer of the Year award.

The Liverpool pair are among 11 Barclays Premier League players still in the running for the Ballon d’Or after the list was condensed from 50 to 30 by France Football magazine.

Torres is among the favourites after netting 33 goals in his first season at Anfield and also scoring the winner for Spain in the Euro 2008 final against Germany in Austria this summer.

Liverpool captain Gerrard has continued to excel for Rafael Benitez’s side and was a driving force in their run to a third Champions League semi-final in the last three years in April.

Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo has been tipped to take the award on December 2 with Barcelona and Argentina talisman Lionel Messi and 2007 winner, Brazilian Kaka of AC Milan, also in contention.

Gerrard’s fellow England internationals Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard have been shortlisted, with Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba (both Chelsea), Edwin van der Sar and Nemanja Vidic (both Manchester United) and Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) are the other Premier League stars included.

Spain are represented by seven players after winning Euro 2008 in the summer – Torres and Fabregas being joined by team-mates Marcos Senna, Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas, David Villa and Xavi in the list.

Only three Serie A players have been nominated – Kaka, Inter Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon – with Spain’s La Liga matching the Premier League with 11 nominees.

The other players shortlisted are former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, fellow Dutchman Rafael van der Vaart and Pepe (all Real Madrid), Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Franck Ribery and Luca Toni (both Bayern Munich), Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg), Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow) and Karim Benzema (Lyon).

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