Three Chelsea players have been nominated for the Ballon D'Or award, seen as the most prestigious individual accolade in European football.

Michael Ballack, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard are all on the shortlist of 30 players from around the continent's top clubs. Drogba was fourth in last season's awards, finishing behind Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and winner Kaka, all of whom are nominated again for 2008.

No player has ever won the award as a Chelsea player, but our players do have a strong history.

Former Blues Andriy Shevchenko (2004), George Weah (1995) and Ruud Gullit (1987) were all winners while with AC Milan, while Lampard finished second in 2005.


The award was initiated in 1956 when Stanley Matthews was the first winner, but Michael Owen remains the only player at an English club to scoop the prize since the 1970s.

Nominations are based on votes by journalists working on football titles throughout Europe, and are compiled by the France Football magazine. The winner will be announced on December 2.


The full list of nominations for 2008 is as follows:

Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal)
Sergio Agüero (Atletico Madrid)
Andreï Archavine (Zénit St Petersburg)
Michael Ballack (Chelsea)
Karim Benzema (Lyon)
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
Iker Casillas (Real Madrid)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Didier Drogba (Chelsea)
Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona)
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)
Fernando Torres (Liverpool)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter)
Kaka (AC Milan)
Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Pepe (Real Madrid)
Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich)
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
Marcos Senna (Villarreal)
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Luca Toni (Bayern Munich)
Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United)
Rafael van der Vaart (Real Madrid)
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid)
Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United)
David Villa (Valencia)
Xavi (Barcelona)
Youri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow).