US Edition 
Only three Premier League players make 23-man Ballon d'Or shortlist
The shortlist for the prestigious Ballon d'Or, given to the best player in world football, is dominated by members of Spain's World Cup-winning squad, while just three players from the Premier League have made the running.
English football supporters, pull the duvets back over your heads. As if such a mortifying summer was not enough, the national game has been humiliated once again, a blind eye turned to English players, none of whom have been deemed adequate to make the shortlist for the prestigious Fifa Ballon d'Or award.
To add to the embarrassment, even the pride of English football, the Premier League, has been snubbed, with only Cesc Fábregas, Didier Drogba and Asamoah Gyan included on the 23-man shortlist for the annual award for the world's best footballer. It is the fewest number of nominations from England’s flagship league for a decade.
And to rub salt in the wound, the shortlist is dominated by Spanish players, who have in recent times been the Premier League’s major rivals for nominations. Seven members of Spain's World Cup-winning squad are included, while current holder Lionel Messi and the Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Ozil make up 11 players nominated from La Liga.
One year ago, four English players - Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and John Terry - were featured on the shortlist. In 2005 there were seven English-born candidates. Yet there can be little complaint. Even Harry Redknapp has admitted that only Ashley Cole could have considered himself a possibility - though, as Redknapp put it, “when does a left back ever win?”
“No Englishmen jumped out this time,” the Spurs manager said. “We were poor in the World Cup and no-one had a go in the Champions League so it’s a bit difficult to see how we could have someone in there. It seems to have been a bad year all round for English football. It is a worry. Only Jack Wilshere looks like he may make it one day.”
Fourteen of the players listed reached at least the final of the Champions League, including Inter Milan’s Samuel Eto'o, Júlio César, Maicon and Wesley Sneijder, but the World Cup and Champions League are not the be-all and end-all. Gyan, the first Premier League player in more than a decade to be nominated from a club outside the Big Four, did not have great success in either. “How is the Ghanaian in there?” Redknapp said.
If there are some some crumbs of comfort, it is that no French or Italian players were shortlisted either.
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Lionel Messi is the reigning Ballon d'Or winner and Fifa World Player of the Year. The awards have now been merged, so the best player in the world will now be recognised by a single accolade - the Fifa Ballon d'Or.
The final decisions will be made by the captains and head coaches of the national teams as well as by international media representatives selected by France Football.
The winners will be revealed in Zurich on Jan 10.
World Player of the Year nominees: Xabi Alonso (Spain), Daniel Alves (Brazil), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Julio Cesar (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Maicon (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Muller (Germany), Mesut Ozil (Germany), Carles Puyol (Spain), Arjen Robben (Holland), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Holland), David Villa (Spain) and Xavi (Spain).
World Coach of the Year nominees: Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Vicente del Bosque (Spain), Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), Pep Guardiola (FC Barcelona), Joachim Low (Germany), Jose Mourinho (Inter Milan/Real Madrid), Oscar Tabarez (Uruguay), Louis Van Gaal (Bayern Munich), Bert van Marwijk (Holland) and Arsene Wenger (Arsenal).