The world soccer governing body FIFA and France Football magazine have announced the three-man short-list for this year's Ballon d'Or. And really no surprise who has made the final candidates are Three-time reigning winner Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Argentina, France and Bayern Munich midfielder Franck Ribery, and Portugal and Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo.

The finalists: Franck Ribery, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will go head-to-head.

Messi just won his third Golden Boot, as the top scorer of the European leagues in 2012/13 and the 26-year-old has won the FIFA Ballon D'or award each year since it was created in 2010 and Messi also won the two awards which merged to form the FIFA Ballon D'Or - the World Player of the Year and the France Football Ballon d'Or - in 2009. Messi scored 56 times for Barcelona last season, helping the Catalans win the Spanish title, but he has struggled with injury in recent months.

Franck Ribery has made the final three for the first time, he won UEFA's Best Player in Europe Award in August, beating off competition from both Ronaldo and Messi. The 30-year-old helped his team to a treble in May as Bayern won the German Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League titles.

Ronaldo is on the final short-list for the third time since the award was introduced. He finished runner-up in 2011 and 2012 and will want to finally get his hands on the award. He became the first player from outside Spain to captain Real Madrid in an El Clasico derby against Barcelona in January, and also helped Real to the semi-finals of the Champions League where they fell to Dortmund on aggregate. So far in the 2013-14 season, the 28-year-old has 25 goals for Madrid, and bagged a stunning hat-trick as Portugal beat Sweden in a World Cup qualifying playoff to reach next year's finals in Brazil. The Ballon d'Or will be presented in Zurich on January 13th.

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