Totti, Ibra Excluded From FIFA World Player Of The Year Shortlist
 

Roma skipper Francesco Totti and Inter star Zlatan Ibrahimovic have bbeen left off the list of 30 players nominated for this year’s FIFA World Player of the Year award.


The Giallorossi captain, who won the European Golden Boot last season and was outstanding as his club reached the quarter-final of the Champions League, has astonishingly failed to make the final cut.
Er Pupone is not the only high-profile player not be nominated. Inter’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has been in magnificent form this campaign, has also been excluded.
There is no place for Bayern Munich goal-machine Luca Toni or Valencia hitman David Villa, while Arsenal’s mercurial midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who has been undoubtedly the best player in the Premiership so far this season, is also absent.
Italy is the most represented nation on the list of nominees with five players. These are Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta, Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo. England and France both have four, Argentina and Brazil three, Germany and Portugal two, and seven nations with one player.
Barcelona are the leading club team with seven nominations. Chelsea have five, Milan four, Manchester Utd and Bayern Munich three, Liverpool and Real Madrid two, and Juventus, Inter, Lyon and Villarreal one.
Totti’s exclusion from this list of 30 players will only add weight to the claims of many people, who say that the FIFA World Player of the Year is a second-grade award, especially in comparison to the prestigious Ballon d’Or (European Footballer of the Year).
The full list of nominees:
Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gennaro Gattuso, Alessandro Nesta, Andrea Pirlo
Argentina: Lionel Messi, Juan Roman Riquelme, Carlos Tevez
Brazil: Juninho, Kaka, Ronadinho
Cameroon: Samuel Eto’o
Czech Republic: Petr Cech
England: Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, John Terry
France: Thierry Henry, Franck Ribery, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira
Germany: Miroslav Klose, Philipp Lahm
Ghana: Michael Essien
Holland: Ruud van Nistelrooy
Ivory Coast: Didier Drogba
Mexico: Rafael Marquez
Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo, Deco
Spain: Fernando Torres