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12.12.2008 14:45
Xavi and Messi in FIFA’s top five
www.fcbarcelona.cat
Xavi Hernández and Lionel Messi have been named as two of the five finalists for the FIFA World Player of the Year award for 2008 along with Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká and Fernando Torres.
The finalists were announced by www.fifa.com and the winner will be named on January 12 when one is chosen from the five. Samuel Eto’o and Andrés Iniesta were in the initial list of 23 names, but were not included in nominations for the gala itself early in the New Year.
On January 12 the winner will be announced at a ceremony in Zurich. The victory will be the player that has garnered the most votes among the eligible coaches and captains of all the national teams around the world.
A great year
Xavi and Messi were also both honoured by FIFPro and France Football with the Argentinian finishing second in the Ballon d’Or vote and the Catalan midfielder fifth.
High praise
FIFA’s official website paid tribute to the five finalists for the award and praised Messi by
saying “few Argentinian football players, if any, have as much ability to be able to say that
they could succeed Diego Maradona as Lionel Messi does”. About Xavi, they wrote “the
Catalan midfielder had a superb 2008 as he helped Spain to win the European Championships".
