Leading tournament scorers Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands and David Villa of Spain headline the list of FIFA's 10 nominees for the World Cup Golden Ball award. FIFA announced the list Friday selected by its technical study group. Sneijder and Villa have each scored five goals and will go head-to-head in Sunday's final at Johannesburg's Soccer City. Also nominated were Diego Forlan of Uruguay, Asamoah Gyan of Ghana, Andres Iniesta of Spain, Lionel Messi of Argentina, Mesut Ozil of Germany, Arjen Robben of the Netherlands, Bastian Schweinsteiger of Germany and Xavi Hernandez of Spain. Media members will vote to determine the tournament's best player after the final, with silver and bronze balls also to be handed out. Previous winners include Ronaldo of Brazil (1998), Oliver Kahn of Germany (2002) and Zinedine Zidane of France (2006). Germany's Thomas Mueller is among three candidates on the shortlist for the best young player at the World Cup award. Andre Ayew of Ghana and Mexico's Giovani Dos Santos are also in contention for the honor. Players must be born after January 1989. The 20-year-old Mueller scored four goals in Germany's run to the semifinals but was suspended for its 1-0 loss to Spain. The shortlist was decided by a FIFA technical panel of coaches and former players. The panel will choose the winner and announce its selection on Sunday after the World Cup final. The award was first made at the 2006 tournament to Germany's Lukas Podolski.
