Cristiano, Messi and Xavi, finalists for the 2011 Golden Ball

It's official. Cristiano, Messi and Xavi are the three finalists to win the Golden Ball as best player of 2011. In addition, Ferguson, Mourinho and Guardiola are candidates for Coach of the Year Cup. The award will be presented on January 9 at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

France Football magazine announced this morning the names of three finalists in a ceremony at the Paris headquarters of the magazine and had as masters of ceremonies of former Barca player Emmanuel Petit and Gaetane Thiney international gala.

Barcelona, ​​with eight players, and Real Madrid, with five teams were more players contributed to the final roster of 23 candidates for the Ballon d'Or

Puskas Award for the best goal of the year
Also in the act were announced three nominees for the FIFA Puskas goal of the year: the goal that he scored against Arsenal Messi in the Champions League, the Brazilian Flamengo Neymar Wayne Rooney and succeeded, in Chile, against Manchester City.

As for the women's game, the three finalists are Brazil's best player Marta, Homare Sawa of Japan and American Abby Wambach. And all three candidates to win the award for best coach of the year a women's team are: Bruno Bini (France), Norio Sasaki (Japan) and Pia Sundhage (Sweden).

In addition to the prizes listed above, will be presented three other awards: the FIFA / FIFPro World XI, the Presidential Award and the FIFA Fair Play award from FIFA.