TEHRAN - Iran’s Mehdi Mahdavikia and Ali Karimi are nominees for the 2009 most popular footballer.

International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) released a full list of world’s popular players.
Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder Mehdi Mahdavikia and Steel Azin striker Ali Karimi are among the nominees.
One of the best-known players such as Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, German Michael Ballack, Argentine Lionel Messi and French Thierry Henry could be selected as the world’s most popular footballer.
Each year, the best footballer in the world is elected by the national trainers and national team captains. Users of the IFFHS website can now for the fourth time elect the most popular footballer in the world who need not be the best one.
The IFFHS has drawn up the following list of 115 currently active players from 68 countries in all six continents.
The result of the users’ poll will be announced in January 2010, the intermediate results on November 3rd and on November 30th, 2009. Votes may be sent until January 2nd 2010.