WORLD CUP 2009

Paraguay first up for holders Italy

Holders Italy will begin the defence of their world title against Paraguay on 14 June in Cape Town after the draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup took place in the South African city.

Top seeds
Of UEFA's other seeded teams, Germany are in Group D alongside Serbia; the Netherlands are in Group E with Denmark; England were drawn into Group C alongside Slovenia; and European champions Spain find themselves in Group H with Switzerland. Portugal, meanwhile, feature in a testing pool alongside five-time winners Brazil, Ivory Coast and North Korea.

Host nation
Ballon d'Or winner and FC Barcelona forward Lionel Messi will try to guide his Argentina side past Nigeria, Korea Republic and Greece in Group B. Finally, 2006 runners-up France will meet hosts South Africa along with Mexico and Uruguay. The final will be held at Johannesburg's Soccer City Stadium on 11 July.

2010 FIFA World Cup group stage draw Group A Group B South Africa Argentina Mexico Nigeria Uruguay Korea Republic France Greece Group C Group D England Germany United States Australia Algeria Serbia Slovenia Ghana Group E Group F Netherlands Italy Denmark Paraguay Japan New Zealand Cameroon Slovakia Group G Group H Brazil Spain North Korea Switzerland Ivory Coast Honduras Portugal Chile

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TEAM OF THE YEAR 2009

Barça have 11 candidates in UEFA team vote

www.fcbarcelona.cat

FC Barcelona have no less than eleven players named as candidates for uefa.com’s Team of the year 2009.

The Blaugrana have Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Txigrinski, Abidal, Touré, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Ibrahimovic up for nomination by the readers of the website. The team will be named on January 8, 2010. Below are all the candidates:
* Goalkeepers: Valdés (FC Barcelona), Van der Sar (Manchester United), Casillas (R. Madrid), Neuer (Schalke 04), Julio César (Inter)
* Right-backs: Alves (FC Barcelona), Maicon (Inter), Srna (Shakhtar), Zanetti (Inter), Lahm (Bayern)
*Centre backs (two will be chosen): Piqué (FC Barcelona), Puyol (FC Barcelona), Chygrynskiy (FC Barcelona), Terry (Chelsea), Vidic (Manchester United), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Chiellini (Juventus), Vermaelen (Arsenal), Mertesacker (W. Bremen), Bruno Alves (Porto)
*Left-backs: Abidal (FC Barcelona), Evra (Manchester United), Schäfer (Wolfsburg), Cole (Chelsea), Cissokho (Olympique Lyonnais)
*Right midfielders: C. Ronaldo (R. Madrid), Stankovic (Inter), Navas (Sevilla), Krasic (CSKA Moscow), Hamsik (Napoli)
*Central midfielders: Xavi (FC Barcelona), Yaya Touré (FC Barcelona), Xabi Alonso (R. Madrid), Semak (Rubin Kazan), Lampard (Chelsea)
*Attacking midfielders: Gerrard (Liverpool), Kaká (R. Madrid), Gourcuff (Bordeaux), Diego (Juventus), Misimovic (Wolfsburg)
*Left midfielders: Iniesta (FC Barcelona), Giggs (Manchester United), Arshavin (Arsenal), Ribéry (Bayern Munich), Özil (W. Bremen)
*Striker (Two will be chosen): Messi (FC Barcelona), Ibrahimovic (FC Barcelona), Eto’o (Inter), Dzeko (Wolfsburg), Grafite (Wolfsburg), Torres (Liverpool), Rooney (Manchester United), Villa (Valencia), Forlán (Atlético de Madrid), Berg (Hamburg)

*Coaches/managers: Guardiola (FC Barcelona), Lucescu (Shakhtar), Ferguson (Manchester United), Blanc (Bordeaux), Hrubesch (Germany Under-21’s)

Messi Ballon d'Or 2009

Messi the number one

www.fcbarcelona.cat

The European correspondents of France Football have voted Leo Messi the best player of 2009 with 473 votes. He’s the first Argentinean to receive the award.

Anybody who has seen him in action already knew – but now it’s official. According to the December edition of France Football, Leo Messi is the best player in the world.
473 votes Messi came top of the vote by a clear margin. He received 473 votes, well ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (233 votes) and Xavi (170 votes). He is the ninth Barça player to take the award and the first since Ronaldinho in 2005.

Since the French magazine opened up the award to cover all domestic leagues three years ago, no player has recieved such an overwhelming majority of the votes as Leo Messi. The Argentine has become the first player from the Barça youth system to win the coverted prize. In 2007 Kaká won with a total of 444 votes and last year Cristiano Ronaldo did so with a total of 446. Third in 2007, second in 2008 He has made steady progress, finishing third in 2007 behind Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo and then second in 2008 behind Cristiano. And now he has taken that final step to finish first in 2009.

The first Argentinean It’s hard to believe but Leo Messi is thefirst Argentinean player to lift the Ballon d'Or. However, until 1995 the award was only open to European players, which excluded players of the stature of Diego Maradona.