Player of the year shortlist

Three of England's players have been nominated for Fifa's prestigious World Player of the Year award.

Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard have made it to the 30-strong shortlist, from which the captains and coaches of all the national teams will pick a winner.

Frank Lampard narrowly missed out to Ronaldinho last year, who was also the winner in 2004. However, it is thought that the pair's disappointing performances in the World Cup will prevent a repeat of last year's results, and the accolade is likely to be battled out by Thierry Henry and Italy's World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro.

The complete list is as follows:

?Adriano (Internazionale, Brazil), Michael Ballack (Chelsea, Germany), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, Italy), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal), Petr Cech (Chelsea, Czech Republic), Deco (Barcelona, Portugal), Didier Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Chelsea, Ghana), Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona, Cameroon), Luis Figo (Internazionale, Portugal), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan, Italy), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, England), Thierry Henry (Arsenal, France), Kaka (Milan, Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Werder Bremen, Germany), Philippe Lahm (Bayern Munich, Germany), Frank Lampard (Chelsea, England), Jens Lehmann (Arsenal, Germany), Alessandro Nesta (Milan, Italy), Andrea Pirlo (Milan, Italy), Franck Ribery (Marseille, France), Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal, Argentina), Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, England), Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal, Czech Republic), Andrei Shevchenko (Chelsea, Ukraine), Lilian Thuram (Barcelona, France), Patrick Vieira (Internazionale, France), Zinedine Zidane (retired, France