Henry, Ronaldinho and Shevchenko battle for top honour

Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho and Andrei Shevchenko will battle it out to be named the FIFA World Player of the Year next month.

The trio have been selected from an original shortlist of 35 players and the award will be announced at FIFA’s World Player Gala on December 20 in Zurich.

Arsenal striker Henry is the slight favourite as he was also in the last three a year ago. None of the players who excelled in Euro 2004 have made the top three.

The inclusion of Barcelona’s Brazilian forward Ronaldinho and AC Milan’s Ukrainian striker Shevchenko among the final trio means that it is the first time since 1999 that a Real Madrid player has not been in the last three.

In the women’s award, Mia Hamm (USA), Birgit Prinz (Germany) and Brazil’s Marta, one of the stars of the recent women’s Under-19 World Championship in Thailand, are vying for the prize.