FIFA Released the List of Nominees for the Golden Ball

Zidane's great performances in the World Cup tournament will certainly not remain unnoticed in the future. I mean, the whole media praises the French ace, even if the beginning of the World Cup saw him being criticized in the newspapers. The French journalists were the first to blame their captain after France's poor performances in the group stages. At one point, Raymond Domenech's team was compared to a group of monkeys.

Well, if we are to believe the evolutionists, the yesterday's monkeys have become today's heroes. And that's exactly how it happened in the World Cup, with the French team rising from the dead and beating 3 of the most powerful teams in the tournament: Spain, Brazil and Portugal. And most of that was because Zidane played some exquisite football.

His stunning performance made him the favorite to winning the Golden Ball. The trophy, awarded to the best player in the World Cup, seems to be an all French-Italian affair, since 7 of the 10 nominees are part of either Squadra Azzura or "les bleus". Still, considering the fact that Zidane will retire at the end of the competition, we're all guessing the name of the winner.

And it's not like the other players are not worthy of winning it. If Italy will win the World Title, Zidane may receive it as a consolation prize, as German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn did 4 years ago. If France will win the World Cup title, it will come as a reward for all the things Zidane did along the last 10-or-so years. Either way, it's highly unlikely that some other players will have a chance of winning the Golden Ball.

Still, let's have a look at the nominees. You will certainly find your own favorite among them:

Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Maniche (Portugal), Michael Ballack (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy), Thierry Henry (France), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Patrick Vieira (France), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Zinedine Zidane (France).