News: FIFA Announces 2014 Ballon D’Or Shortlists & They’re Positively Chock Full Of Surprises!

The following 23 men are in contention for the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2014:

Gareth Bale
Karim Benzema
Diego Costa
Thibaut Courtois
Cristiano Ronaldo
Angel Di Maria
Mario Götze
Eden Hazard
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Andres Iniesta
Toni Kroos
Philipp Lahm
Javier Mascherano
Lionel Messi
Thomas Müller
Manuel Neuer
Neymar
Paul Pogba 
Sergio Ramos
Arjen Robben
James Rodriguez
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Yaya Toure

The following ten coaches are in contention for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football 2014:

Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid)
Antonio Conte (Juventus/Italy)
Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich)
Jurgen Klinsmann (USA)
Joachim Loew (Germany)
Jose Mourinho (Chelsea)
Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City)
Alejandro Sabella (Argentina)
Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid)
Louis van Gaal (Netherlands/Manchester United)

The winners of all of the awards will be revealed at the FIFA Ballon d’Or gala at the Zurich Kongresshaus on 12 January 2015, along with all the other little bits and bobs Sepp and his cronies dole out.
Interestingly enough, there are rumours that Luis Suarez hasn’t made the shortlist due to FIFA’s “overall behaviour on and off pitch” clause – not that we’re remotely surprised.
Anyway, you can probably go ahead and stick a shiny groat on Ronaldo picking up back-to-back Ballons, while we’re guessing Diego Simeone will be going home with the coaches award.