Five in for FIFA honor

A shortlist of players has just been released by FIFA for the World Player of the Year award and out of the 30 players, 5 are from Chelsea.  Put together by FIFA’s technical committee, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba were name.  The Blues become the 2nd best represented team, following Barcelona with 7.

Voting will be done by the coach and captain of each nation, with the restriction of not being able to vote for anyone from their own nation.  This means JT and Drogba will be able to participate in the votation on December 17 in Zurich but cannot vote for Lamps and Essien, respectively.

In 2005 Frank Lampard finished second behind Brazilian Ronaldinho and Andriy Shevchenko placed third a year before.

Manchester United have 3 in Rooney, Ronaldo, and Tevez while Liverpool have 2 in Gerrard and Torres.  Arsenal surprisingly have none.

The full list follows:

Buffon (Juventus, Italy), Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy)

Cech (Chelsea, Czech Rep), Ronaldo (Man Utd, Portugal)

Deco (Barcelona, Portugal), Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast)

Essien (Chelsea, Ghana), Eto’o (Barcelona, Cameroon)

Gattuso (Milan, Italy), Gerrard (Liverpool, England)

Henry (Barcelona, France), Juninho (Lyon, Brazil)

Kaka (Milan, Brazil), Klose (Bayern Munich, Germany)

Lahm (Bayern Munich, Germany), Lampard (Chelsea, England)

Marquez (Barcelona, Mexico), Messi (Barcelona, Argentina)

Nesta (Milan, Italy), Pirlo (AC Milan, Italy)

Ribéry (Bayern Munich, France), Riquelme (Villarreal, Argentina)

Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil), Rooney (Man Utd, England)

Terry (Chelsea, England), Tevez (Man Utd, Argentina)

Thuram (Barcelona, France), Torres (Liverpool, Spain)

Van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid, Holland), Vieira (Internazionale, France)

From among the 30 players, Kaka is favorite to win for leading the Rossoneris to Champions League victory last season.