Oct. 20--Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina's Lionel Messi head the 23-man shortlist for the FIFA Ballon d'Or, the award presented annually to soccer's world player of the year.
Ronaldo has won the award the last two years while Messi won it in each of the four previous years. Ronaldo, who plays for Real Madrid in Spain's La Liga, scored a league-best 48 goals last season and is second with six this season. Messi scored 43 times for Barcelona last season and had three goals before going down with an injury this fall.
Five of the other finalists played on Messi's club team, which won last spring's Champions League, while five each came from Real Madrid and German champion Bayern Munich.
The winner, chosen in a vote of the captains and head coaches of the men's national teams as well as by international media representatives selected by France Football magazine, will be announced in Zurich in January.
Earlier Monday Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe and Hope Solo of the World Cup champion U.S. team were named to the shortlist for the women's player-of-the-year award while U.S. Coach Jill Ellis was nominated for the coach's prize.
The shortlist for FIFA's 2015 Ballon d'Or
