The shortlist of the top six players in English football as voted for by their fellow professionals who now compete for the coveted award of Professional Footballers Association Player of the Year.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
Manchester United's Portuguese wing wizard has really come of age this year and deserves to win the PFA award after a season's worth of top drawer performances for a Manchester United side still competing for a repeat of their 1999 Treble winning season.Accolades such as "the world's best player" have even been bandied about and on current form it's hard to think of any player in any major league who could come close to him.
2. Didier Drogba
Reviled and discredited by his own Chelsea fans in his first season in English football, Didier Drogba has made all of his critics eat their words this season with a bagful of goals as Chelsea defend their Premiership title, reach the FA Cup semi-finals, win the Carling Cup and are still in with a shout of European glory in the Champion's League.He may have hit more goals in a season that any player since Chelsea legend Kerry Dixon almost twenty years ago but Drogba's greatest achievement is in winning over the Chelsea fans.
3. Steven Gerrard
Winner of the PFA Player of the Year Award in 2006 and Liverpool's talisman, Steven Gerrard is for many pundits the most complete midfield player in England, if not the whole European game. Steven Gerrard's contribution to Liverpool's push for another European Cup crown has taken them as far as a semi-final against Chelsea and if Gerrard manages to produce the goods on the big European stage as he did in 2005 when they last won took the trophy back to Anfield, they'll definitely be writing his name even further into the history books at Liverpool.4. Ryan Giggs
Just when everyone thought the days of the flying Welsh wing wizard were over, Ryan Giggs has rolled back the years to produce one of his finest ever seasons in a Manchester United shirt and given his outstanding pedigree for the past 15 years, that's really saying something.United, with Giggs, Scholes and Ronaldo all shortlisted for the PFA Player of the Year award, are tantalisingly close to another memorable treble winning season and that's thanks in no small part to Ryan Giggs. Like a fine wine he just gets better with age and at 33 still has a couple more years left in him yet at the top level.
5. Paul Scholes
Another Manchester United man making up three in the final six of the PFA Player of the Year shortlist for 2007 which just underlines the form and dominance the old stagers from Old Trafford have achieved this season.Paul Scholes, like Ryan Giggs, could easily have been written off as a busted flush but at 32 he has once again produced some of the finest attacking midfield football witnessed in decades and re-established himself as one of the English game's greatest ever performers.
How England manager Steve McLaren must wish he could tempt Scholes back out of international retirement!
6. Cesc Fabregas
Frighteningly still only 19 years of age, the young Spaniard has racked up more than 100 first team appearances for Arsenal at the very highest level and despite being out of contention for all trophies already this season, he can look back on another solid year of footballing growth.Having even rediscovered his goalscoring form in recent weeks, Fabregas can look forward to a future full of promise as one of the English Premiership's most complete central midfield players.