Suarez not in 23-man Ballon D'or list this year

Barcelona’s striker Luis Suárez has been omitted from Fifa’s 23-man list of contenders for the Ballon d’Or award.

The list, which will omit the one player deemed to be the world’s best, also has no Englishmen but five Premier League players on it, though there is no place for the division’s leading scorer from last season.

27-year-old Suárez scored 31 goals for Liverpool as they narrowly missed out on the English title, but his season ended in controversy after he bit Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini while playing for Uruguay at the World Cup.

He was served with a fourth-month ban by Fifa as a consequence – a suspension which ended when he made his Barcelona debut against Real Madrid on Saturday – and would surely have made the list and been a strong contender without the incident at the World Cup.

As it is, his Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi and the current Ballon D’or holder Cristiano Ronaldo are sure to battle it out once more.

Also included in the list will be Paul Pogba, Eden Hazard, 'King' Zlatan Ibrahimovich and the world's fastest player, Arjen Robben along with 5 of his Bayer Munich Team-mates.

Ballon D'or Shortlist:

Gareth Bale (Real Madrid), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Diego Costa (Atlético Madrid/Chelsea), Thibaut Courtois (Atlético Madrid/Chelsea), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Ángel Di María(Real Madrid/Manchester United), Mario Götze (Bayern Munich), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG), Andrés Iniesta(Barcelona), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich/Real Madrid), Philipp Lahm(Bayern Munich), Javier Mascherano (Barcelona), Lionel Messi(Barcelona), Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Neymar (Barcelona), Paul Pogba (Juventus), Sergio Ramos(Real Madrid), Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich), James Rodríguez(Monaco/Real Madrid), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich),Yaya Touré (Manchester City).

Coach of the year Shortlist :

Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid), Antonio Conte (Juventus/Italy national team), Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich), Jürgen Klinsmann (USA national team), Joachim Löw (Germany national team), José Mourinho (Chelsea), Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City), Alejandro Sabella (Argentina national team), Diego Simeone (Atlético Madrid),Louis van Gaal (Netherlands national team/Manchester United).