LIONEL MESSI CAN make history as the first footballer to win the prestigious Ballon d’Or award four times.
FIFA and France Football magazine confirmed the least surprising shortlist of all-time this afternoon with Messi, Barcelona team-mate Andres Iniesta and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo 2012′s three nominees.
Last year Messi, 25, joined French legend Michel Platini as the only players to win three straight titles. Dutch duo Johan Cruyff and Marco Van Basten have also won the award three times.
US stars Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach are joined by Brazil’s Marta on the shortlist for women’s player of the year while the coach of the year award will be contested by Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Spanish manager Vicente del Bosque.
Bruno Bini (France), Norio Sasaki (Japan) and Pia Sundhage (Sweden) are nominated for women’s coach of the year. The Puskas award for best goal will go to Falcao, Neymar or Miroslav Stoch.
The winners will be announced on 7 January in Zurich.
Why do they need a 25,000 seater stadium when they play all of their games in croke park? #Joke
They want one so they don’t have to play all their games in Croke Park
Just thought the exact same thing!!
They need one as Parnell Park is too small and also so as to not have to use Croke Park all the time. People give out because they use Croker all the time but now people are finding fault that they want to their own facilities/stadium and not have to rely on Croker all the time?
Spot on Dave. Personally i think it’s a great idea, would be great to play the league games there and sell it out. Great atmosphere on a Saturday evening
Just a guess Conor, but maybe so they don’t have to play their games in a half empty Croke Park?
I know it’s in a tight residential area but just upgrade Parnell park a bit?
They looked into that, there’s no space unfortunately.
Cause we can
Such a shame. From a selfish point of view, the Spawell would have been a handy venue to get to and from
any idea who went and out bid them?
Leinster county delegates 10 against 1 for (Laois) , fear of losing gates receipts of Croke Park , remember only for the Dublin cash cow most county boards would fold
You can’t beat Parnell Park, I hope the Dubs don’t leave there any time soon.