Azzurri heroes up for FifPro award

Italy's World Cup winning campaign has put 10 players in the running for the FifPro award.

The commission has over 43,000 members around the world and the short-list of 55 candidates for the 2006 FifPro World Player award was announced this week.

Inter defender Marco Materazzi is one of 10 Azzurri players up for the trophy, to be given out on November 6 in Athens. The others are Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Fabio Grosso, Alessandro Nesta, Gianluca Zambrotta, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Francesco Totti and Luca Toni.

Despite his red card in the World Cup Final for a violent headbutt on Materazzi’s chest, Zinedine Zidane is also on the short-list. The former Juventus midfielder, who has since retired, was given a three-match ban for that incident. Materazzi was handed a two-game suspension for ‘provoking’ the attack.

In all, Serie A and Serie B has 18 representatives in the 55-man short-list, one more than the 17 of the Premier League.

Chelsea are the club with the most members in the running with eight, but Milan follow on seven and had Andriy Shevchenko in their ranks until his £30m summer move to Stamford Bridge.


Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Petr Cech (Czech Republic), Dida (Brazil), Jens Lehmann (Germany), Edwin van der Sar (Holland).
Defenders: Roberto Ayala (Argentina), Cafu (Brazi), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Roberto Carlos (Brazil), Cicinho (Brazil), Ashley Cole (England), Rio Ferdinand (England), William Gallas (France), Fabio Grosso (Italy), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Lucio (Brazil), Rafael Marquez (Mexico), Marco Materazzi (Italy), Miguel (Portugal), Alessandro Nesta (Italy), Carles Puyol (Spain), Willy Sagnol (France), John Terry (England), Lilian Thuram (France), Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy).
Midfielders: Michael Ballack (Germany), Deco (Portugal), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Luis Figo (Portugal), Gennaro Gattuso (Italy), Steven Gerrard (England), Kaka (Brazil), Frank Lampard (England), Claude Makalele (France), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Juan Roman Riquelme (Argentina), Francesco Totti (Italy), Patrick Vieira (France), Ze Roberto (Brazil), Zinedine Zidane (France).
Forwards: Adriano (Brazil), Hernan Crespo (Argentina), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Thierry Henry (France), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Arjen Robben (Holland), Ronaldinho (Brazil), Ronaldo (Brazil), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Wayne Rooney (England), Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine), Luca Toni (Italy), Fernando Torres (Spain).