Trio Shortlisted For Top Prize

Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic could follow in Cristiano Ronaldo’s footsteps… by winning the prestigious Ballon d’Or.

The United stars are three of 30 European-based players on the shortlist, announced by France Football on Saturday. The award, won by Ronaldo last year while wearing United colours, is voted for by world football journalists.

Giggs has been in sparkling form in 2009 and earlier in the year won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award. Rooney, too, has continued his emergence as one of the brightest talents in European football, particularly since the departure of Ronaldo to Real Madrid in the summer.

Meanwhile, Nemanja Vidic has been consistently rock-solid at the heart of United's defence and, back in May, was the recipient of the Sir Matt Busby Players' Player of the Year award, voted for by his club team-mates.

The Barclays Premier League is well represented in this year’s Ballon d’Or nominations: 10 of the 30 nominees currently play their football in England. But it’s Barcelona’s Lionel Messi who’s widely tipped to take the crown from Ronaldo when this year’s winner is announced on 1 December.

Ronaldo’s chances of becoming the first player to win back-to-back Ballon d’Or titles since Marco van Basten achieved the feat in 1989 shouldn’t be discounted: in the first half of 2009 he helped the Reds to Carling Cup and Barclays Premier League silverware and scored 16 goals after the turn of the year.

Since joining Real Madrid in the summer he’s netted nine times in seven games.