Seven players from Spain's World Cup-winning team, including Barcelona trio Andres Iniesta, David Villa and Xavi Hernandez, were nominated Tuesday for the 2010 FIFA Ballon d'Or world player of the year award.
The 23-man list also has three players who starred both at the World Cup and for their club last season: Golden Ball winner Diego Forlan of Uruguay and Europa League champion Atletico Madrid; Wesley Sneijder of runner-up the Netherlands and Champions League winner Inter Milan; and Thomas Mueller of Germany and Champions League runner-up Bayern Munich, who was top scorer and voted best young player in South Africa.
The past two winners - Lionel Messi of Argentina and Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Real Madrid - are nominated despite disappointing World Cup campaigns.
''Hopefully the trophy will remain in Barcelona,'' Messi told France Football magazine. ''I hope it will be for one of ours.''
Six players from Barcelona - Daniel Alves, Iniesta, Messi, Carles Puyol, Xavi and Villa, who joined the Catalan outfit from Valencia - are on the shortlist.
Barcelona retained the Spanish title last season with Messi scoring 34 goals to finish as the league's top scorer. Messi scored 47 goals in all competitions and won the Golden Boot, a prize awarded to Europe's top marksman.
''Of course I would be happy to win the Ballon d'Or for a second straight year,'' Messi said. ''But I think the World Cup will weigh a lot in the balance.''
Messi failed to score a goal at the World Cup in South Africa, where Argentina lost 4-0 to Germany in the quarterfinals.
The 23 players nominated all took part in the World Cup while nine of them played the Champions League final won by Inter over Bayern Munich.
However, Argentina forward Diego Milito was left off the list, despite scoring both goals in Inter's 2-0 win against Bayern as well as a host of other important strikes in Inter's treble-winning season.
Milito, who has had a difficult start to this season, may have been penalized for his failure to win a place in Argentina's starting lineup at the World Cup.
The 2007 winner Kaka is also left off the list, which includes his Brazil teammates Daniel Alves of Barcelona, and Inter pair Julio Cesar and Maicon.
Chelsea's Ivory Coast forward Didier Drogba and Arsenal's Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas are among the three English Premier League players nominated, but no English, French or Italian players are shortlisted.
The award, formerly known as the FIFA World Player of the Year, is being staged jointly for the first time by FIFA and France Football magazine, which first presented the original Ballon d'Or in 1956.
Votes will be cast by captains and head coaches of men's and women's national teams plus invited journalists.
A top-three shortlist will be announced Dec. 6, and the winner named at a ceremony in Zurich on Jan. 10.
Among the 10 candidates for the women's world player award are Brazil's Marta and Germany's Birgit Prinz, who have combined to win the past seven titles.
Awards for the best men's and women's coach will be made for the first time.
Spain's Vicente del Bosque is competing for the men's honor with nine rivals including Oscar Tabarez of World Cup semifinalist Uruguay and Jose Mourinho, who won the Champions League with Inter Milan before joining Real Madrid.
The women's list contains Maren Meinert, who led Germany to the Women's Under-20 World Cup title in July, and Albertin Montoya of FC Gold Pride, champion of the United States' Women's Professional Soccer league.
At the January gala, FIFA also will announce a World XI team in conjunction with the FIFPro group of players' unions, the Puskas Award for most beautiful goal of the year, a presidential award and a prize for fair play.
-----
FIFA Ballon d'Or men's nominations: 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 Oezil (Germany), Carles Puyol (Spain), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), David Villa (Spain) and Xavi (Spain).
