An award for Jérôme Leroy?

The awards season is on. As the FIFA and France Football unveiled the name of the three finalists to the Ballon d’Or this morning, the website “Les Cahiers du Football” also announced a list of nominees for their yearly award, the now famous «Ballon de plomb» (Ball of Lead).

This year, the website also decided to bring some innovation by creating a new trophy called «Ballon d’eau fraîche» (Ball of Fresh Water), much more gratifying than its Leaded alter ego.

Among the eleven candidates for this new trophy, Rennes midfielder Jérôme Leroy, and former “Rouge et Noir” Arnaud Le Lan (Lorient). The winner will be elected according to four criteria decided by the Cahiers du football :

- Faithfulness to their club
- Lucidity over their level of play and environment
- Ability to play in a team
- Fair-play

Alongside Leroy and Le Lan, the nine other nominees are Jérémie Bréchet (Sochaux), Brandão (Marseille), David Ducourtioux (Valenciennes), Steeve Elana (Brest), Cédric Hengbart (Auxerre), Jérémie Janot (Saint-Étienne), Jean-Pascal Mignot (Auxerre), Julien Sablé (Nice) and Nicolas Seube (Caen).