BALLON D' OR SPECIAL :

 Here are some of the guidelines defined by FIFA for the Ballon d’Or award:

• Voted by the national team coaches & Captains along-with with one journalist from top football nations around the world.
• Performance period from 22 November 2014 to 20 November 2015 is taken into consideration.
• Voting started on 26th October 2015 and completed on 20th November 2015.
• The winners will be announced on 11 January 2016 in the Ballon d’Or ceremony.

This is how the top three players faired in 2015 calendar year. Lionel Messi and Neymar won the treble scoring loads of goals while Ronaldo was one man show with Real Madrid throughout the year. Ronaldo and Messi scored 48 goals each in 2015 while Neymar is just 3 behind with 45. Messi however assisted 24 goals compared to 14 and 13 by Ronaldo and Neymar respectively.

Here is the shortlist of players announced for the Ballon D’or Award 2015. This list will be trimmed down to top 3 players before the ceremony after the voting has been finalized. Every national team coach, captain and renouned football jounalists will be voting and once the voting period is over FIFA Will announce the top 3 players a week before the ceremony while the winner will be announced during traditional player of the year gala.

FIFA BALLON DOR 2015 – NOMINEES

NO#	DEFENDERS & KEEPRS	MIDFIELDERS	FORWARDS
1	Manuel Neuer (GK)	Kevin De Bruyne	Cristiano Ronaldo
2	Javier Mascherano	Eden Hazard	Lionel Messi
3		Toni Kroos	Sergio Aguero
4		Paul Pogba	Zlatan Ibrahimovic
5		Andreas Iniesta	Luis Suarez
6		James Rodriguez	Gareth Bale
7		Yaya Toure	Alexis Sanchez
8		Arturo Vidal	Thomas Muller
9		Ivan Rakitic	Neymar
10		Arjan Robben	Robert Lewandowski

When Ballon d’Or Ceremony Will Take Place ?
FIFA world player of the year will be announced on Monday, 11th January 2015 in Zurich, Switzerland. There are number of other awards also up for grabs with the likes of FIFA Puskas (best goal of the year), Women player of the year, manager of the year and FIFpro Team of the year.

The Ceremony will be officially start at 9:45 NST and will be streamed on this blog and SS4