From Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo to Chelsea's Diego Costa: The complete 23-man Ballon d'Or 2014 shortlist

 

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Nominated: Cristiano Ronaldo
Getty
Standard Sport28 October 2014

The 23-man shortlist for this year’s Ballon d’Or has been announced.

The winner of the award, which recognises the best player in world football across a calendar year, will be announced in January.

Every single player on the list is based in Europe, with six players coming from Bayern Munich alone.

Ten of the players featured play their football in La Liga, while just five belong to clubs in the Premier League.

Germany’s success at the World Cup is reflected in the shortlist, with six Germans being featured, while Spain and Argentina provide three players each.

But alarmingly for Roy Hodgson, there are no English players featured on the shortlist.

Many have already picked out Cristiano Ronaldo as the favourite to retain his title as the world’s best player after an astonishing 2014 for the Portuguese.

Click through the gallery below to read Standard Sport’s guide to those in with a shout of winning this year’s Ballon d’Or.

The 23 players nominated for the 2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or

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