Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard are on Fifa's 30-man shortlist for World Player of the Year award.

That trio of players are among 12 Premiership players in contention for the prize, with Arsenal's Thierry Henry seen as a front-runner for the award.

 

Last year's winner was Brazilian Ronaldinho, who also won in 2004.

 

This year's competition is expected to come down to a contest between striker Henry and Fabio Cannavaro, captain of World Cup winners Italy.

 

Chelsea are the most represented club with six players on the shortlist: Lampard, Petr Cech of the Czech Republic, Ghana's Michael Essien, Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast, Germany's Michael Ballack and Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko.

 

Former France midfielder Zinedine Zidane, sent off in the World Cup final in Berlin, is also included on the shortlist.

 

Zidane retired from soccer after France lost to Italy in the final on 9 July 9, his career ending with a head-butt on defender Marco Materazzi 10 minutes before the end of extra time.

 

Zidane, Ronaldinho and Inter Milan's Portuguese midfielder Luis Figo are the only men on the shortlist to have previously won the Fifa gong.

 

Zidane has already claimed the honour three times, as a Juventus player in 1998 and 2000 and with Real Madrid in 2003. Figo won the award in 2001 during his time with Real Madrid.

 

The head coaches and captains of all national teams will now vote for their best players from the shortlist.

 

The prize will be awarded in Zurich on 18 December.

 

 

 

Fifa World Player of the Year shortlist:

Adriano (Inter Milan, Brazil), Michael Ballack (Chelsea, Germany), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, Italy), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal), Petr Cech (Chelsea, Czech Republic), Deco (Barcelona, Portugal), Didier Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Chelsea, Ghana), Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona, Cameroon), Luis Figo (Inter Milan, Portugal), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan, Italy), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, England), Thierry Henry (Arsenal, France), Kaka (AC Milan, Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Werder Bremen, Germany), Philippe Lahm (Bayern Munich, Germany), Frank Lampard (Chelsea, England), Jens Lehmann (Arsenal, Germany), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan, Italy), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan, Italy), Franck Ribery (Marseille, France), Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal, Argentina), Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, England), Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal, Czech Republic), Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea, Ukraine), Lilian Thuram (Barcelona, France), Patrick Vieira (Inter Milan, France), Zinedine Zidane (retired, France).

 

 

Source: BBC Sport

 

I would say the main contenders are Zidnae, Cannavaro and Gattuso. Out of the England players Gerrard probably had the best chance. I'm gonna go for Zidane to win though because of how good he was at the world cup.

:lol: ironic on current form they shouldn't be in the ENgland squad

Something I read elsewhere is that that list just looks like someone's done a search on Football Manager and listed the top 30 players... An utterly predictable list!

if any English player should feature it should be Terry not them 3

Michael Ballack (Chelsea, Germany), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy), Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona, Cameroon), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan, Italy), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, England), Thierry Henry (Arsenal, France), Jens Lehmann (Arsenal, Germany), Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil).

 

They are the only ones on the list deserving to be on there. Why is Adriano there and not Villa? Lampard will typically come about 3rd. As will Cech come rediculously high.

I don't even know why Lampard is on the list I mean he hasn't done anything at all really this year for Chelsea or England. Terry should be on that list as well. He's been Englands best player for the past year and has also been one of Chelsea's best players as well.

Alias taking it basically all the chelsea players... if you actually bothered watching them you'll have seen Essien is definetly deserving of being on that list. And this this is for the whole of 2006 i'm surprised Joe Cole was not on the list.

I can see why Joe Cole isn't on the list. I mean normally FIFA tend to go for the "bigger" name players for this award and compared to Lampard or whatever Joe Cole isn't as "big". He's up for the European footballer of the year award as well, which I don't really think is any different to this one apart from their are a few more players on the shortlist.

Well Fifa just go for the big names rather than reconising the talent.

How long will Fifa overlook Juninho and players playing outside the ''3 big leagues'' ? it's a joke! Juninho has contributed more to his club and country over the past year than half of them in that list!

 

 

Hopefully Gerrard does well, but i agree Henry should win this