Gigi Buffon, Samuel Eto’o and Javier Zanetti are among the candidates for the 2011 Golden Foot award.
The winner of the public vote will receive a place on the Champions Promenade, a football version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in Monte Carlo.

The jury of 58 sports journalists from around the world put together the list of 10 contenders for the award marking an historic career.

There are three Serie A figures in the list: Juventus goalkeeper Buffon, Inter captain Zanetti and his teammate Eto’o.

The other candidates are David Beckham (England, LA Galaxy), Iker Casillas (Spain, Real Madrid), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, Chelsea), Ryan Giggs (Wales, Man Utd), Carles Puyol (Spain, Barcelona), Raul (Spain, Schalke 04) and Xavi Hernandez (Spain, Barcelona).

The public can vote online until October 7 and the winner will receive his award on October 10.

Why Buffon when he almost play 20 games ?

The hell? What is this award anyway? If I remember clearly, actually, I think it's for players above 30.

29 is the minimum age for consideration, the player must still be active and the award can only be won once.

Unbelievable that Zanetti and Buffon are there over Nesta for the past season's work.

All the past winners:

Baggio, Nedved, Shevchenko, Ronaldo, Del Piero, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho, Totti

All have played in Serie A at some stage in their career.

So my best bet is on a Calcio player.

My bet would be on Eto'o.

I'd like Buffon to win it, but it's not an important award I guess (could be mistaken).

It depends what sort of trend the voting follows. An online vote to my mind might favour a retiring player without another chance to win the award in Giggs, however the current scandal may equally work against him. For that reason Beckham could claim the award, though it would seem strange if he hasn't been nominated before in which case he might have been rejected before.

dostoevsky wrote:For that reason Beckham could claim the award, though it would seem strange if he hasn't been nominated before in which case he might have been rejected before.

I'm not so sure. The best player (or one of) in the world over the age of 29 is playing in the MLS?

MacPhisto/MirrorBallMan wrote:

dostoevsky wrote:For that reason Beckham could claim the award, though it would seem strange if he hasn't been nominated before in which case he might have been rejected before.

I'm not so sure. The best player (or one of) in the world over the age of 29 is playing in the MLS?

Well if we're simply discussing the best player then it's between Xavi, who didn't have his best season but was still at an amazing level, or Eto'o for dragging Inter along against their will. An online poll by the public - what do they know? - could go to anyone however.

buffon...........?