SOCCER REPORTS

CANADA'S SINCLAIR NAMED FINALIST FOR FIFA AWARD 

 Canadian Press                            26th October 2010

Christine Sinclair has scored 102 goals in 140 international appearances and she has made the ten nominations for the 2010 FIFA Ballon d'Or world player of the year award.

In the men's competition, seven players from Spain's World Cup winning team make the list of 23, including Barcelona's Andres Iniesta, David Villa and Xavi Hernandez. The past two winners — Lionel Messi of Argentina and Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Real Madrid — are nominated despite disappointing World Cup campaigns.

The award, formerly known as the FIFA World Player of the Year, is being staged jointly for the first time by FIFA and France Football magazine, which first presented the original Ballon d'Or in 1956.

Votes will be cast by captains and head coaches of men's and women's national teams plus invited journalists.

Three finalists will be announced Dec. 6, and the winner named at a ceremony in Zurich on Jan. 10.Among the 10 candidates for the women's world player award are Brazil's Marta and Germany's Birgit Prinz, who have combined to win the past seven titles. Awards for the best men's and women's coach will be made for the first time.

Spain's Vicente del Bosque is competing for the men's honour with nine rivals including Oscar Tabarez of World Cup semifinalist Uruguay and Jose Mourinho, who won the Champions League with Inter Milan before joining Real Madrid.

The women's list contains Maren Meinert, who led Germany to the Women's Under-20 World Cup title in July, and Albertin Montoya of FC Gold Pride, champion of the United States' Women's Professional Soccer league. At the January gala, FIFA also will announce a World XI team in conjunction with the FIFPro group of players' unions, the Puskas Award for most beautiful goal of the year, a presidential award and a prize for fair play.