Ballon d'Or 2015: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar on final three-man shortlist

23 players were nominated for the award organised by football's governing body FIFA and France Football magazine, but that was whittled down to three when the announcement was made on Monday afternoon.

It is the eighth straight year Messi and Ronaldo have been on the shortlist for the world's best player with the winner to be announced in Zurich on January 11.

Ronaldo's Real Madrid team-mate Gareth Bale was the only British player in the 23, but once again there is no Premier League representative in the final three despite Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Yaya Toure, Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez and Eden Hazard being nominated in the long list.

Messi has won the award four times and is priced at 1/12 hot favourite to claim the Ballon d'Or for a fifth time after inspiring Barcelona to a treble of Champions League, Liga and Copa del Rey.

“To be honest I think Messi is going to win this year because this kind of trophy, it depends on votes,” said Ronaldo earlier this month.

“You win competitions, you win the Champions League you win the league in terms of individual. I did probably the best season of my career which is good and I was the highest scorer in Europe (but) it’s all about votes, it’s difficult and to be honest I’m not very worried about that because as I said many times, I never thought I’d win three times to be honest.”

Ronaldo has won the award three times - twice in the past two years - but is unlikely to win for a third straight year after ending the season without a trophy. He was leading scorer in all European competitions in 2015, and scored in each leg of Real Madrid's defeat to Juventus in the last four of the Champions League.

He has scored 48 goals in 51 games in 2015, but the lack of a trophy with his club is likely to cost him.

Neymar was a key component of Barca's success, and is the top goalscorer in La Liga with 11 goals.

"Yes, I think that I deserve to be (amongst the finalists) because of the way I'm playing," said Neymar.

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique has been nominated for the coach of the year alongside Pep Guardiola of Bayern Munich and Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli, who led the host nation to their first Copa America title with a win on penalties against Argentina in July.

Lionel Messi 1/12

Cristiano Ronaldo 8/1

Neymar 12/1