Juventus dominate golden ball list

[snakies]

Juventus are the most represented club in the 50-man shortlist for the 2005 European Footballer of the Year award.

The Italian champions have a total of nine players in the running following their success in Italy over the last year.

Gianluigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi, Fabio Cannavaro, Patrick Vieira, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Trezeguet, Lilian Thuram, Emerson and 2004 winner Pavel Nedved are all up for the prize.

Milan have five members of their squad in the roster thanks to the performances of Andrea Pirlo, Paolo Maldini, Nelson Dida, Kaka and current Golden Ball holder Andriy Shevchenko.

The Inter pair of Luis Figo and Adriano make up the 16 Italian based players included, the same number as the English Premier League.

However, there are some big names missing from Serie A in the form of Juve captain Alessandro Del Piero and Francesco Totti of Roma.

The winner will be selected via votes from European based journalists by France Football magazine.

The award this year celebrates its 50th birthday.
Candidates: Adriano (Inter), Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich), David Beckham (Real Madrid), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Petr Cech (Chelsea), Andriy Shevchenko (Milan), Gregory Coupet (Lyon), Cris (Lyon), Deco (Barcelona), Dida (Milan), Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Emerson (Juventus), Michael Essien (Chelsea), Samuel Eto`o (Barcelona), Luis Figo (Inter), Diego Forlan (Villarreal), Luis Garcia (Liverpool), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Thierry Henry (Arsenal), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juventus), Juninho (Lyon), Kaka (Milan), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Roy Makaay (Bayern Munich), Claude Makelele (Chelsea), Paolo Maldini (Milan), Pavel Nedved (Juventus), Michael Owen (Newcastle), Park Ji-Sung (Manchester United), Andrea Pirlo (Milan), Raul (Real Madrid), Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal), Arjen Robben (Chelsea), Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid), Robinho (Real Madrid), Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), John Terry (Chelsea), Lilian Thuram (Juventus), David Trezeguet (Juventus), Marc Van Bommel (Barcelona), Ruud Van Nistelrooy (Manchester United), Patrick Vieira (Juventus), Xavi (Barcelona), Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid).

[davor_suker]

Raul? Beckham? What a joke. Atleast Juventus is well represented.


Gerrard or Ronaldinho will get it, i think.

[snakies]

Juventus ‘keeper Gigi Buffon insists that teammate Zlatan Ibrahimovic deserves the 2005 Golden Ball.

The Swede is one of nine Bianconeri players to be short-listed for the honour and Buffon, who is also a contender, has no doubts about his quality.

"I would give it to Ibrahimovic for all the good things he did last season," said the shot-stopper.

"He demonstrated that he could adapt quickly to a difficult championship like the Italian one.

"Who else has impressed me? I would say Barcelona’s Ronaldinho and Frank Lampard of Chelsea."

Buffon has spent the last two months on the sidelines following shoulder surgery, but his loss doesn’t seem to have affected his side’s ability.

They have won their first eight League games and the Italian concedes that he’s not been missed.

"We’ve won all of these matches and I don’t think my absence has been noted," he said modestly.

However, his replacement in the shape of Christian Abbiati has been criticised for a few shaky performances.

"Abbiati has played very well," defended Buffon. "He picked up an injury on Sunday, but was adequately replaced by Antonio Chimenti.

"Juventus don’t have any problems in goal."

Abbiati suffered a knee injury at the weekend, but he is expected to face Sampdoria on Wednesday night.

[Lance Knight]

either raul for breaking the record or gerrad for thechapions league final performane, i think raul has been getting even better recently

[ASG]

it is because ronaldo is not there wait till he comes back roul will go bad again

[Lance Knight]

lol nah actually they have been getting along pretty well these days, lol

[davor_suker]

Raul is a useless piece of shit...just like LANCE GIVE ME MY POINTS BACK BIATCH:redeyes: :mad2: :yell:

[ASG]

lol nah actually they have been getting along pretty well these days, lol
i m not saying that they are not, but when they play together roul doesnt score, since real got ronaldo roul's scoring went down, how many goals has he scored in ECC 4 after ronaldo getting there and what they have won, nothing

[RealMadrilismo]

no juve player will win so it doesn't matter how many you guys got.

Raul and Beckham have better chances then anyone in your team.

[zaro]

Overrated-Raul, will get. :thumb:

[ASG]

hey if you are in love with Beckham that doesnt mean that he going to win he has done nothing in his shity life, he just got good looking wife, only people like him are mosty girls from US and asia where they cant understand soccer at list not yet,(not all but most).goodbye

[SUPERAJAX]

KEEP YOUR ***KING HANDS OFF OUR PLAYERS!!!