Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar in final shortlist — FIFA Ballon d’or

There was little doubt that these will be the three men standing on the podium in Zurich, but who would be standing the tallest is still anyone’s guess.

It is the eighth consecutive year the Real Madrid forward and Barcelona’s Messi have been on the shortlist.

Barcelona have been forced to pay Santos a further €2 million after 2013 signing Neymar was nominated as part of the three-man shortlist to win this year’s Ballon d’Or.

At 23, Neymar is the youngest of the finalists and has been shortlisted in the final three for the first time.

Neymar, 23, is the top scorer in La Liga this term with 12 goals in 11 appearances, with two more in five Champions League outings, and was particularly impressive during Messi’s recent two-month absence with a knee injury.

And for the women’s coach of the year, Jill Ellis (U.S.), Mark Sampson (England) and Norio Sasaki (Japan).

While Ronaldo will be hoping for a third successive win of the coveted award, the Barcelona duo of Neymar and Messi also looks good to dethrone the Portuguese star.

Enrique receives the honour for guiding Barcelona to the treble last season, claiming the La Liga title, Copa Del Rey and the Champions League in his first season at the club.

The only blemish on Messi’s year was Argentina’s failure to land the Copa America in Chile. “I’ve always just played with the idea of continually getting better, to always surpass my goals, to always be better, play better, train better”, he said.

The FIFPro World Team of the Year includes 50 footballers from around the world, and this year 10 have been selected from the English league.

Wayne Rooney is one of them, despite criticism of his form for Manchester United while John Terry is the only other Englishman. David de Gea, Branislav Ivanovic, Vincent Kompany, Eden Hazard, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero and Alexis Sanchez have also made the cut.