Ballon d'Or holder Cristiano Ronaldo and four-time winner Lionel Messi are among 23 players on FIFA's list of contenders for this year's award honouring the world's top player.

The list was compiled by the FIFA Football Committee with the help of French magazine France Football. It will be trimmed to a shortlist of three on Dec. 1, with the winner announced at a ceremony in Zurich on Jan 12, 2015.

Messi won the award four straight years from 2009-2012, while Ronaldo won it in 2008 and 2013. The award was presented solely by France Football until 2009, and the publication joined with FIFA's World Player of the Year Award for the 2010 edition.

Cristiano Ronaldo broke Lionel Messi's grasp on the Ballon d'Or last year. Can he win it again? Stuart Franklin/FIFA/Getty Images

The list features 17 players from Europe, five from South America and one from Africa (Yaya Toure). World champions Germany are the most represented with six entries.

All of the candidates play their club football in Europe, for only eight different clubs, with Real Madrid and Bayern Munich tied for the most with six each, followed by Barcelona with four.

Two goalkeepers were named to the shortlist: Belgium's Thibaut Courtois and Germany's Manuel Neuer.

There was no place on the list for Barcelona striker Luis Suarez, who was named the Premier League's Player of the Year last season while at Liverpool and shared the Golden Ball award as Europe's top goal scorer last term with Ronaldo, following his four-month ban for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini during a match at the World Cup.