French players dominate golden ball nominees

French players, including Arsenal trio Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires, dominate the 50 nominees for the 2001 European Footballer of the Year award.

Another eight Frenchmen -- Fabien Barthez, Vincent Candela, Eric Carriere, Marcel Desailly, Bixente Lizarazu, Lilian Thuram, David Trezeguet and Zinedine Zidane -- are on the list for the golden ball, awarded annually by France Football magazine.

The recipient of the award, won last year by Real Madrid and Portugal midfielder Luis Figo, will be named the week before Christmas.

Apart from France, the countries with the most nominees are Italy, with six players, and Brazil and England with five.

AS Roma captain and playmaker Francesco Totti and England striker Michael Owen have been widely tipped by the French press as favourites for the prestigious award.

Other Italian contenders are veteran forward Roberto Baggio, Juventus pair Gianluigi Buffon and Alessandro Del Piero, Lazio's Alessandro Nesta, and Totti's Roma team mate Damiano Tommasi.

Manchester United's David Beckham and Paul Scholes, Liverpool's Owen and Steven Gerrard, and Leeds United defender Rio Ferdinand are the five English nominees.

Italy's Serie A is the best represented league with 17 players, closely followed by England's premier league with 15.

European champions Bayern Munich, Juventus, Real Madrid, Manchester United and AS Roma each have five players on the list.

Asked by France Football who he would vote for, Figo picked his Real team mate Raul.

"Honestly, I would put Raul on top for all the goals he scores regularly in the Liga as well as in the Champions League," Figo said.

"He has phenomenal consistency. I think he deserves it and he is the best placed," he added.