Aguero, Benzema join Ronaldo and Messi on Ballon d'Or shortlist

Real's Cristiano Ronaldo will be going in search of his third consecutive World Player of the Year award

Manchester City's Sergio Kun Aguero

IMAGE: Manchester City's Sergio Kun Aguero. Photograph: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Manchester City's Sergio ‘Kun’ Aguero was one of the five English Premier League players to be listed on the 23-man Ballon d'Or shortlist, released on Tuesday.

Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Aguero’s City teammates Kevin De Bruyne and Yaya Toure were the other EPL players on the list.

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo

IMAGE: Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

Real Madrid's blockbuster 'BBC' forward line and Barcelona's devastating 'MSN' trio are set to go head-to-head for the 2015 Ballon d'Or award after all six were named on the 23-man shortlist by FIFA on Tuesday.

Real's Cristiano Ronaldo, who set a club scoring record with his 324th goal on Saturday, will be going in search of his third consecutive World Player of the Year award.

He faces competition from his teammates Karim Benzema of France and Welshman Gareth Bale who make up the Spanish side's 'BBC' frontline.

FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi

IMAGE: FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi. Photograph: Tony Gentile/Reuters

Joining them are four-times winner Lionel Messi, the Argentine great, and his fellow South American strikers Neymar and Luis Suarez who form Barcelona's feared MSN frontline that fired a combined 122 goals last season.

Barcelona, who won La Liga, the Champions League and domestic cup last year, have the most players on the shortlist with Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta, Argentine defender Javier Mascherano and Croatian Ivan Rakitic joining their front three on the award.

Real have five with Colombian James Rodriguez and German World Cup-winner Toni Kroos also named.

Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski (right) celebrates with teammates Thomas Mueller (centre) and Mario Goetze

IMAGE: Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski (right) celebrates with teammates Thomas Mueller (centre) and Mario Goetze. Photograph: Micha Will/Getty Images

German champions Bayern Munich also have five representatives with Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Mueller, Arjen Robben, Arturo Vidal and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Vidal is joined by Chilean compatriot Alexis Sanchez after their Copa American success in July.

ManchesterCity midfielder Yaya Toure, winner of the last four African Player of the Year awards, is the only non European or South American to make the list.

The list was composed by the FIFA Football Committee and a group of experts from France Football. The winner will be announced in Zurich on January 11.

Shortlist

Sergio Aguero (Argentina/Manchester City)

Gareth Bale (Wales/Real Madrid)

Karim Benzema (France/Real Madrid)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid)

Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium/Manchester City)

Eden Hazard (Belgium/Chelsea)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden/Paris Saint-Germain)

Andres Iniesta (Spain/Barcelona)

Toni Kroos (Germany/Real Madrid)

Robert Lewandowski (Poland/Bayern Munich)

Javier Mascherano (Argentina/Barcelona)