The five nominees for the ASPIRE FIFPro Young Player Award have been announced with three of five players coming from Premiership clubs.
The award, which is sponsored by ASPIRE, the Qatar-based Academy for Sports Excellence, will be awarded at a gala event in Athens on 6th November to one of the following nominees following a public vote:
• Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal/ Spain)
• Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona / Argentina)
• Lukas Podolski (FC Köln / Germany)
• Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/ Portugal)
• Wayne Rooney (Manchester United/ England).
At the ceremony – which are the world’s only international player-voted football awards – the World Player of the Year, the FIFPro Life Time Achievement Award and the newly sponsored ASPIRE FIFPro World Young Player Award will all be presented along with the announcement of the FIFPro World XI.
Voting for this award will be open to and decided by football fans across the world who can log onto www.ASPIRE.qa to cast their vote for who they believe is the best young player in World Football today. There will also be an SMS vote in certain markets including the UK through Sky Sports.
Nominees for this award must have been 21 or younger during last season.
Dr Thomas Flock, Director General of ASPIRE, said: “Our sponsorship of the World Young Player reinforces our commitment to supporting the brightest and best young athletes and helping them develop their talents though the early stages of their careers. This award epitomises the standards we are hoping to achieve in Qatar.”
Theo van Seggelen, Secretary-General of FIFPro, said: “There are no greater football critics than the players themselves and to be recognised by your fellow professionals from across the world will be a unique honour, and as professionals they know what it takes to reach the very top of the game.
“ASPIRE plays a major role in nurturing the future stars of tomorrow and we fully endorse their commitment to enhancing their pursuit of excellence in young athletes.”
The FIFPro World XI Player Awards 2006 is promoted by RAM Media Ltd and commercially represented by Parallel Media Group plc.
About ASPIRE
ASPIRE, the Academy for Sports Excellence, Doha, was created with the dual aims of identifying and transforming promising student athletes into world renowned champions across a wide range of sports and to act as a beacon to draw sporting culture into the centre of life in Qatar and the surrounding region.
The Academy is distinguished by a philosophy which aims to develop the whole student, providing them with full academic, social and sporting development.
Unrivalled facilities mark the Academy out as one of the world’s foremost sporting and educational institutions, and entice an ever increasing number of visitors from across the spectrum of world sports to use or simply view them. These same facilities will also play host to events during the forthcoming Asian Games 2006.
With one indoor and seven outdoor football pitches, athletics tracks, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, diving pool, combat arenas, gymnastics arena, specially designed weight rooms, lecture halls, dormitories to accommodate what will eventually become 1,000 students, a medical centre and more besides, much beneath the world’s largest purpose built indoor sports dome, every aspect of the development of elite athletes is catered for. ASPIRE is a place for those who dare to dream.
ASPIRE TODAY, INSPIRE TOMORROW
www.ASPIRE.qa
