Shanghai: Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo will once again bid to become the first team player to win the individual World Sportsman of the Year Award but he will face still competition from a glittering collection of world's greatest sports stars, who have been nominated for the 2015 Laureus World Sports Awards, here today.
Ronaldo will be up against some ferocious opposition from stars such as Lewis Hamilton, Rory McIlroy, Novak Djokovic -- to name a few -- when the winner is named in a glittering ceremony here on April 15.
Ronaldo was beaten by Sebastian Vettel last year but this time he faces UK pair Lewis Hamilton and Rory McIlroy, tennis world No.1 Novak Djokovic, Spain's World MotoGP champion Marc Marquez and Renaud Lavillenie, the French pole vaulter who broke Sergey Bubka's 21-year-old world record.
The Nominations - six in each category - have set up some eye-catching confrontations. None more so than for the Laureus Team of the Year Award, where the shortlist has produced the ultimate football showdown: the German World Cup Team v Real Madrid, winners of a tenth Champions League.
The impact of the FIFA World Cup is also felt in the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year category where Germany's Mario Gotze, who scored the winning goal in the final, and Colombia's James Rodriguez, winner of the Golden Boot as leading scorer, are both nominated.
Although not picked for an individual Award, record four-time Laureus winner Roger Federer receives two Nominations for the part he played, along with Stan Wawrinka, in the first ever success by the Swiss Davis Cup Team, who are shortlisted for both Team of the Year and Breakthrough of the Year.
