Lampard, Rooney, and Gerrard shortlisted for 2008 European Footballer of the Year

This weekend saw the publication of the shortlist for the prestigious 2008 European Footballer of the Year award. The list of nominees was released by France Football magazine and includes three English footballers: Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, and Wayne Rooney.

They have been nominated along with eight other players from the Premier League, including the Manchester United star, Cristiano Ronaldo, who is the favourite to be handed the Ballon d’Or. Ronaldo’s team mates, Edwin van der Sar and Nemanja Vidic, have also been nominated.

These three players, alongside Wayne Rooney, were instrumental in securing the Champions League for their club in May of this year. Chelsea, who reached the final of the tournament and were unlucky to be beaten by United, have two other players in the shortlist alongside Frank Lampard.

Combative midfielder, Michael Ballack, and star striker, Didier Drogba, were important parts of the team that finished second in the Premiership last season and reached the final of the Carling Cup. Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres scored numerous goals between them last season and have been rewarded for their efforts with nominations for the award.

Some football pundits have been quick to pick up on notable absentees from the shortlist. Ex-Arsenal striker and legend of the Premier League, Thierry Henry, has missed out on a place on the list following a relatively disappointing season with Barcelona.

Ronaldinho, who won the award in 2005 but was forced into moving to AC Milan following a disappointing spell at Barcelona, has also been left out. Indeed, only three players from the Italian league, Serie A, have been named in the shortlist: Kaka, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Gianluigi Buffon.

This statistic is particularly embarrassing for the Italians when viewed alongside the 11 players from the Premier League and the 11 players from Spain’s La Liga.

Although Ronaldo is the strong favourite to be crowned the European Footballer of the Year, with Lionel Messi and Kaka both in with an outside chance, Wayne Rooney’s recent form may make things interesting in the run-up to the ceremony.

The striker believes that he is in the best form of his life after making a poor start to the season. He failed to score a goal during Manchester United’s first six games but has now scored eight goals in his last six performances for both club and country.

Rooney scored during United’s match against West Brom at the weekend and later revealed that he is “really pleased” with his form. The striker was extremely impressive during England’s match against Belarus last week, scoring twice. One of the goals was world-class and he was praised by the British media after the match.

Rooney believes that extra effort put in whilst training recently is what lies behind this “good run of goals”. The Manchester United star will celebrate his birthday at the end of this week, happy in the knowledge that he is enjoying such scintillating form. Worryingly for fans of Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool, Sir Alex Ferguson believes that Rooney has not yet reached his peak.