Lionel Messi,Cristiano Ronaldo,Andres Iniesta Nominated for 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Andres Iniesta are the finalists for FIFA's World Player of the year 2012 Award.

Primera Liga & Champions League in 2012
	Messi	Ronaldo	Iniesta
Games played	50	51	39
Total minutes	4,380	4,541	2,835
Goals	72	53	6
Total shots	205	288	48
On target	139	149	23
Shot conv. rate	35.1%	18.4%	12.5%
Assists	17	11	16
Passes	3,178	1,848	2,667
Passes per game	63.6	36.2	68.4

 

They were picked from a list of 23 candidates for this year's Ballon d'Or, with Lionel Messi looking to become the first player to win the award four times.

Lionel Messi - Barcelona and Argentina

 

Messi has already won the Ballon d'Or three times - 2009, 2010 and 2011 - and is odds-on favourite to become the first player to win the title a record fourth time

Messi scored 14 goals in the 2011-12 Champions League, breaking the record of 12 that he had previously shared with former Manchester United striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy

Messi scored the most goals - in domestic and international games combined - in a calendar year 2012.Messi finished 2012 with 91 goals. 

Cristiano Ronaldo - Real Madrid and Portugal

 

Ronaldo scored 46 goals in total for Los Blancos - becoming the only player in La Liga history to score 40 goals or more in a season twice.

Ronaldo finished the 2011-12 campaign with 60 goals in all competitions, including at least one against each of Real's 19 domestic league opponents - the first time that feat had been achieved.

In Oct 2012,Ronaldo became the first person to score in six consecutive El Clasicos,Real Madrid drew with FC Barcelona 2-2

 

Andres Iniesta - Barcelona and Spain

 

played the leading role as Spain won Euro 2012 to clinch back-to-back European Championship titles

won three man-of-the-match awards during last summer's competition in Poland and Ukraine, and was named UEFA Player of the Tournament

named the best player of the 2011-12 Champions League tournament

4 Players Have Won the "Ballon d'Or" Award Thrice - 

1) Hendrik Johannes Cruijff known as Johan Cruyff is a  former Dutch Football Player(won in 1971, 1973 and 1974)

2) Michel François Platini, is a former French Football Player( won in 1983,1984 and 1985) 

3) Marco van Basten,former Dutch Football Player ( won in 1988,1989 and 1992 ) and

4) Lionel Messi,Argentine Football Player ( won in 2009,2010 and 2011)

 Lionel Messi won the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2011 after polling 47.88 of the votes, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (21.6)%) and Xavi (9.23%)



World Coach of the Year Award
Spain Coach Vicente Del Bosque, Former Barcelona Coach Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid Coach Jose Mourinho were in the running for the ''World Coach of the Year'' 2012 Award.

The FIFA World Coach of the Year is an association football award given annually to the coach who is considered to have performed the best in the previous season. It is awarded based on votes by coaches and captains of international teams, as well as journalists from around the world.

The award started in 2010 after France Football's Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year Award were merged.

FIFA World Coach of the Year 2010
The Portuguese Manager,Jose Mourinho, was the first winner of the Men's FIFA World Coach of the Year award in 2010.

 

The Women's version of the award was won by Germany Head Coach Silvia Neid

 FIFA World Coach of the Year 2011
Former Barcelona Coach Pep Guardiola was the winner of the Men's FIFA World Coach of the Year award in 2011

The Women's version of the award was won by Japan Head Coach Norio Sasaki