4 Reds nominated for 2008 European Footballer of the Year award
20 October 08 by Bill
The 2008 European Footballer of the Year award nominees were announced last night with United having four players nominated; Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic and Edwin van der Sar.
Other Premier League club’s with players nominated are predictably Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool but none have as many nominations as United. Chelsea have three players up for the award; Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba whilst Liverpool and Arsenal have two nominees each in Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, and Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor respectively. The only club with more is Real Madrid with 5 but one of them, Rafael van der Vaart, earned his nomination whilst playing for Hamburg.
Cristiano Ronaldo is a big favourite to lift the prestigious Ballon d’Or award with the chances of any of the other Reds scooping the prize being slim (if you’re Wayne Rooney) to non-existent (for Vidic and Van der Sar – sorry). Simply being nominated is a big achievement and as pointed out by Gemma Thompson over at manutd.com, where on earth is Ferdie’s nomination? He had a fantastic season for us last year and his consistency over the last couple of years has been spot on.
I know I may be biased but I seriously can’t see past Ronaldo for the award. Messi might run him close but overall, there was noone doing what he was doing last year, he really was in a class of his own.
The full list of nominations
Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Togo
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Spain
Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Argentina
Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Argentina
Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona), Cameroon
Xavi (Barcelona), Spain
Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Italy
Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), France
Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Germany
Frank Lampard (Chelsea), England
Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Ivory Coast
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan), Sweden
Youri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), Russia
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Italy
Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Spain
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), England
Karim Benzema (Lyon), France
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Portugal
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), England
Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), Serbia
Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United), Netherlands
Kaka (Milan AC), Brazil
Pepe (Real Madrid), Portugal
Rafael van der Vaart (Real Madrid), Netherland
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Spain
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), Netherlands
Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Spain
David Villa (Valence CF), Spain
Marcos Senna (Villarreal), Spain
Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg), Russia
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Cristiano Ronaldo was tapped up
ok! well i agree that ronaldo is the best of this year but i don think if he is gonna take world soccer player remember now there is the messi and bojan krick so it will be tough for him. im barcelona supporter and i real wanna to meet man u again in uefa champions league sponsor so as to prove between messi and ronaldo which is the best … but for 100% i believe messi is better cause he gatta
everything ,,, im sure if messi had not has problems concern his legs he would
get ballon . but that is my idea if u have any question or opinion find me .
[ mhando.john@yahoo.com ] thanks so much for listen me.
iam barcelona representer in tanzania—Africa.