FIFA shortlist filled with players in a league yet to play a game

By: Melissa | October 30th, 2008

Oh, wait. First I’m going to digress for a few seconds. If you are a Bay Area resident and of or above the drinking age, I’d like to let you all know that some law firm is giving out free cab rides home from whatever Halloween party you will be at on Friday. So you don’t drunk-drive yourself into a ditch… or another person… or a helpless house pet. And since this is an election year, you might want to postpone whatever you’ve got planned for Monday and instead go check out Obama The Musical which looks like it may just put the upcoming Sarah Palin porn to shame. As for Election night, I’m sure there are numerous Election parties to choose from but I bet you’d be hard pressed to find a please come sit in our public hot tub Election party. This is, of course, something to do after you spend the day voting and eating your free Krispy Kreme doughnut and free Ben N Jerry’s scoop of ice cream.

Ok, so back to the soccer. FIFA announced its shortlist of nominees for the 2008 Player of the Year award and eight out of the ten players nominated are WPS draftees. Ok, technically two out of the ten players are officially playing in the league while the other six are still in that “international discovery” negotiation-y phase. And I haven’t read any articles saying Cristiane, Daniela, Marta, Christine Sinclair, Kelly Smith, or Ingvild Stensland actually put pen to paper so I’m going to assume they are all still pondering their offers. Anyways, if all goes well, here is the FIFA shortlist and each player’s team:

Shannon Boxx (USA) Los Angeles Sol
Cristiane (Brazil) Chicago Red Stars
Daniela (Brazil) St. Louis
Marta (Brazil) Los Angeles Sol
Christine Sinclair (Canada) Bay Area
Kelly Smith (England) Boston Breakers
Hope Solo (USA) St. Louis
Ingvild Stensland (Norway) St. Louis

Which just leaves two Germans, Nadine Angerer and Birgit Prinz, as the lone nominees not linked to WPS. Bet they feel lonely. Ok, they probably don’t. National Team head coaches will vote this list down to three with an announcement in December. The winner will be announced at a fancy gala in Zurich in January.

And in kind-of-sort-of drama news, Umea gave Marta an ultimatum to make her decision on where she’ll wind up by the end of this month (i.e. tomorrow!). Marta did ask the LA Sol if Johanna Frisk could also come play for the team and apparently LA offered Johanna a contract. Although I’m not sure if LA first put a discovery claim on her. Anyone know?
_____
Stupid Filter results: “Text is not likely to be stupid.”