Gareth Bale & Robin Van Persie Shortlisted For Ballon d’Or Award

shortlisted for the 2012-13 FIFA Ballon d€™Or award. The shortlist for last season€™s award is dominated by Bayern Munich and the German Bundesliga €“ making up for 50% of the nominees. Champions League winners Thomas Müller, Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben and Bastian Schweinsteiger of Bayern Munich are all amongst those shortlisted. The treble-winning German side were the only club to have more than one player shortlisted for last season€™s award. Borussia Dortmund€™s Robert Lewandowski took the tally up to 5/10 for the Bundesliga. The full list of shortlisted players is as follows: Gareth Bale (Wales) €“ Tottenham Hotspur Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) €“ Real Madrid Zlatan Ibrahimovi‡ (Sweden) €“ Paris Saint-Germain Robert Lewandowski (Poland) €“ Borussia Dortmund Lionel Messi (Argentina) €“ Barcelona Thomas Müller (Germany) €“ Bayern Munich Franck Ribéry (France) €“ Bayern Munich Arjen Robben (Netherlands) €“ Bayern Munich Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany) €“ Bayern Munich Robin van Persie (Netherlands) €“ Manchester United Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were nominated from the Spanish La Liga and Zlatan Ibrahimovi‡ from France€™s Ligue 1. Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie representing the Netherlands and Thomas Müller and Bastian Schweinsteiger representing Germany are the only two nationalities to have more than one player shortlisted, whilst Lionel Messi is the only player born outside of Europe on the list. No English player has been shortlisted this year, leaving Michael Owen (2001) as the last English winner of the FIFA Ballon d€™Or. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United €“ 2008) was the last player to win the award whilst playing in the Premier League. Barcelona€™s Lionel Messi has won the award for each of the past four years. The winner of the award will be announced on Thursday 29 August during the UEFA Champions League group stage draw.

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Barrie's View is a football stat man focusing mainly on the English Premier League. Barrie also contributes to other large football blogs, including Back Page Football and Football Talk, and has been cited by the USA Today.