Hazard, Courtois, Costa nominated for Ballon d'Or 2014; Mourinho for FIFA Coach of the Year

Oh look, it's time to decide whether Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi gets the FIFA Ballon d'Or this season!  How incredibly exciting for the two of them, I'm sure.

For whatever reason, FIFA still seem to insist on nominating others alongside those two, and for this year have seen fit to name three Chelsea players to that list.  Though two of them got there mostly for their exploits with Atlético Madrid.

Here's the full list of 23 nominees:

Gareth Bale (Wales), Karim Benzema (France), Diego Costa (Spain), Thibaut Courtois (Belgium), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Angel Di Maria (Argentina), Mario Goetze (Germany), Eden Hazard (Belgium), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Toni Kroos (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Javier Mascherano (Argentina), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Mueller (Germany), Manuel Neuer (Germany), Neymar (Brazil), Paul Pogba (France), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), James Rodriguez (Colombia), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Yaya Toure (Côte d'Ivoire)

It's a good thing neither Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, nor Diego Costa bit anybody this year because that apparently is grounds for complete disqualification.  Good luck to all three in vying for that 3rd place finish.

Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho was once again nominated for the coaching award.  One of his fellow nominees is Jürgen Klinsmann, who will surely send a thank you letter to Chris Wondolowski for allowing him to not come anywhere near to winning the award this year.

Carlo Ancelotti (Italy/Real Madrid CF), Antonio Conte (Italy/Juventus FC/Italy national team), Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Bayern Munich), Juergen Klinsmann (Germany/ USA national team), Joachim Loew (Germany/Germany national team), Jose Mourinho (Portugal/Chelsea FC), Manuel Pellegrini (Chile/Manchester City FC), Alejandro Sabella (Argentina/Argentina national team), Diego Simeone (Argentina/Atletico Madrid), Louis van Gaal (Netherlands/Netherlands national team/Manchester United FC)

The winners will be announced on January 12, along with the winners of the Puskás Award (nominees for the most beautiful goal award to come in about a month) and the FIFpro "World" XI (i.e. the Barcelona-Real Madrid-Bayern Munich FIFA Dream Team).