Ronaldo on brink of world award
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Ronaldo on brink of world award
Cristiano Ronaldo is the favourite of five candidates to walk away with the FIFA World Player of the Year award on Monday.
Manchester United winger Ronaldo, who has already picked up the FIFPro and Ballon d'Or awards this season, has been chosen along with Fernando Torres, Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and current holder Kaka.
After scoring 42 goals en route to Champions League and Premier League titles last season Ronaldo seems set to improve on his third place last year.
The closest challenger appears to be Barcelona's Messi, who despite an average season with his club last season has been on blistering form since winning gold at the Beijing Olympics, helping Barca storm to a 10-point lead at the top of the Primera Liga before the winter break.
Spain duo Xavi and Torres feature after playing key roles in their country's success at Euro 2008, while Kaka is among the candidates again despite a under par season last year with AC Milan.
The award will be made at FIFA's world player gala in Zurich, the first time the award has been held in January.
It is also the first time five finalists have been chosen as opposed to three.
Each national team manager and player is given a vote for their player of the year from a shortlist released by FIFA.
Kaka, Messi and Ronaldo made up last year's top three. No player from Spain or Argentina has ever won the award, while French midfielder Zinedine Zidane and Brazilian striker Ronaldo both won it three times and Ronaldinho has won twice.
The women's award has also been extended to five candidates, and this year features an English player for the first time.
Kelly Smith will be up against 2007 and 2008 winner Marta and her Brazilian compatriot Cristiane, as well as Germany's Nadine Angerer and three-time winner Birgit Prinz.
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If he does'nt win it........
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...then it goes to messi
Ronaldo =
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Cristiano Ronaldo to be crowned World Player of the Year
Best of the best: Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo will make history in Zurich tomorrow night by becoming the first player from the Premier League to be crowned World Player of the Year.
Manchester United have allowed Ronaldo to be in Switzerland for the glittering ceremony, despite it being sandwiched between today's game against Chelsea and Wednesday's match against Wigan.
The 23-year-old winger, who has seen off a star-studded short list of Lionel Messi, Kaka, Xavi and Fernando Torres, hopes the award will end a recent run of bad luck.
Last week, the Portugal international wrote off a brand new £316,000 Ferrari just hours after being part of a United side beaten at Derby in the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final.
Although struggling for form recently, Ronaldo has enjoyed a tumultuous 2008 to follow in the footsteps of past winners like Zinedine Zidane, Brazil's Ronaldo and Ronaldinho.
He scored 42 goals last season as United became champions of England and Europe, including one in the Champions League final against Chelsea.
But he also had to endure a summer of controversy when United blocked his £70million dream move to Real Madrid. Ronaldo is already the PFA, Football Writers' and European Player of the Year, and Sir Alex Ferguson has compared him to Pele and Diego Maradona.
Now, current Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz, who worked with Ronaldo at Old Trafford as Ferguson's No 2, expects his protege to go on and become one of football's all-time legends.
'Cristiano has the rare opportunity to make his own history in the game,' he said. 'If he gains wisdom, he will become a true master and join those few greats like Pele, Eusebio, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Michel Platini and Diego Maradona.
'I think with maturity and experience, he will develop from a soloist into a maestro. 'He has a divine genius and deserves to be World Player of the Year for 2008.'
Ronaldo's award is a huge boost for the Premier League. All FIFA's previous World Players of the Year since the award's inception in 1991 have come from either Italy's Serie A or Spain's La Liga. Wayne Rooney will have to endure a 12-month season if he is to inspire England to World Cup glory in 2010.
United boss Ferguson wants to start pre-season training on July 6 so that his players can prepare for a lucrative tour of the Far East, while the World Cup final in South Africa will take place 370 days later, on July 11, 2010.
United are expected to leave England on July 16 to play games in Vietnam, Malaysia, South Korea and China but the schedule will leave England fans fearing their top players will suffer burn-out before the World Cup, particularly as key men, including Rooney and Rio Ferdinand, are not due to finish this season until June 10, following a World Cup double-header against Kazakhstan and Andorra.
FIFA are hoping to delay the start of the World Cup until a month after the end of the 2009-10 club season, but a lot of that time will be taken up with preparation work for the finals.