Taiwo Adelu/Sports Editor

Only 165 voters opted for  Real Madrid star, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi of Argentina and Brazilian Neymar both of FC Barcelona as the three short-list for this year’s FIFA Ballon d’Or Award for the best player of 2015.

 Of the number that voted  as captains and coaches from FIFA member nations,   79.71% voted for the trio. While 88.6%  of the media representatives with votes, also supported the three strikers.

Also announced Monday by FIFA are the contenders for Women’s World Player of the Year 2015 Award. The nominees, Carli Lloyd (USA/Houston Dash), Aya Miyama (Japan/Okayama Yunogo Belle), and Célia Šašić (Germany/1. FFC Frankfurt) are in the running for the women’s award.The candidates for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football are Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Bayern Munich), Luis Enrique Martínez (Spain/FC Barcelona) and Jorge Sampaoli (Argentina/Chilean national team), while the nominees for FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football award are Jill Ellis (USA/USA national team), Mark Sampson (Wales/English national team) and Norio Sasaki (Japan/Japanese national team).

FIFA says all of the nominees were confirmed after a voting process, which was open to the captains and head coaches of the men’s and women’s national teams of the 207 member associations as well as international media representatives selected by FIFA and France Football.

The voting procedure for each of the awards was supervised and monitored by the independent observer PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Switzerland.

In addition, the three nominees for the FIFA Puskás Award for the “most beautiful goal of the year” were announced. The three final goals are: Alessandro Florenzi – 16.09.2015, AS Roma – FC Barcelona, UEFA Champions League / Wendell Lira – 11.03.2015, Atletico-GO –Goianesia, Campeonato Goiano (Brazil) / Lionel Messi – 30.05.2015, Athletic Bilbao  – FC Barcelona, Copa del Rey (Spain).

All of the awards will be presented at the FIFA Ballon d’Or award ceremony at the Kongresshaus in Zurich on 11 January 2016.