Cristiano Ronaldo Named FIFPro World Player Of The Year

Cristiano Ronaldo has been voted player of the year by his fellow professionals at FIFPro. The international players’ union, which has 57,500 members, announced that the Manchester United whinger, ooops I mean winger, who scored 42 goals last season when United won both the Champions League and Premier League, had topped their poll.

"To be recognized by my fellow professional players worldwide coming from over 50,000 players is amazing," he said. Ronaldo is also a strong contender to win the Fifa award as well as the European Golden Ball, which is organized by the French magazine France Football.

"I would like to thank my teammates and coaches and everyone involved at Man United and the national team, as well as my family and friends for their support, thank you also to FIFPro for this award and for your work in protecting the interests and welfare of players around the world."

Five of the Spanish stars who won the 2008 European Championship were named in FIFPro’s team-of-the-year lineup. With all but one of the players coming from either the Spanish or English leagues, the lineup includes Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos, Barcelona’s Carles Puyol and Xavi Fernandez and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres. Barcelona’s Argentina forward Lionel Messi is also in the team and Champions League winner Manchester United has Rio Ferdinand and Ronaldo. Liverpool also has Steven Gerrard, John Terry is the only Chelsea player on the lineup and AC Milan’s Kaka is the lone star from Italy’s Serie A.....Back To Home Page

Manchester United To Sign 'Everyone'

Manchester United Football Club are in the running to sign Karim Benzema, Lionel Messi and Fernando Torres !! Ooops, I forgot David Villa too.

Despite having Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov and Cristiano Ronaldo at their disposal, the Reds will join Barcelona and Real Madrid in the hunt for the £35million-rated Lyon striker. Well that's the latest of a long string of reports I have read today anyway. I find it amazing that anyone would think Fergie would even consider deals such as this. It's not like £140m grows on trees to just snap these guys up. Then there would be the small problem of putting six of these eight superstars on the bench every game and they wont put up with that.

Benzema's agent Karim Djaziri is at the centre of all the rumours anyway, pimping his guy round Europe to wring every penny out of a possible deal ! The scourge of football is what these agents are, they should be shot !!

“Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United are not the only clubs following Karim because all the big European clubs are,” he told France-Football. Our contacts with the clubs are constant and our contacts did not start last year but since Karim is 16! But we are transparent with Lyon on every point and they are aware of everything happening.” .....Back To Home Page

Ballon D'Or Short List

Manchester United's Wayne Rooney, Chelsea's Frank Lampard and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard are among 11 Premier League players shortlisted for this year's Ballon d'Or. The trio are the only British representatives for the award alongside the likes of Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo - the clear favourite - and Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas.

France Football magazine have revealed the condensed list of 30 contenders for their European golden ball award, with Barcelona striker Thierry Henry and AC Milan's Ronaldinho, who received the accolade in 2005, absent after disapp-
ointing campaigns last season.

Portugal international winger Ronaldo is the clear favourite to win the award on December 2 with Barcelona's Lionel Messi and 2007 winner Kaka also in contention. Rooney won the Champions League with Manchester United in May while Lampard played in the final for Chelsea. Liverpool's Gerrard impressed as they reached the tournament's last four before losing to Chelsea in the semi-finals.

Michael Ballack, Didier Drogba (both Chelsea), Edwin van der Sar, Nemanja Vidic (both Manchester United) and Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) are the other Premier League stars on the list, which has been cut down from 50. Spain are represented by seven players after winning Euro 2008 in the summer - Torres and Fabregas being joined by Marcos Senna, Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas, David Villa and Xavi.

Only three Serie A players have been nominated - Kaka, Inter Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon - with Spain's Primera Division matching the Premier League with 11 nominees. Previous Ballon d'Or winners Andriy Shevchenko and Fabio Cannavaro have missed out.

Shortlist: Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg) Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Internazionale), Kaka, Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Pepe (Real Madrid), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Marcos Senna (Villarreal), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United), Rafael van der Vaart (Hambourg/Real Madrid), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), David Villa (Valencia), Xavi (Barcelona), Youri Zhirkov .....Back To Home Page