The BBC have revealed their Footballer of the Year shortlist.

The five players nominated by a panel of experts including administrators, journalists, coaches and former players are: Spain’s Veronica Boquete, Germany’s Nadine Kessler, Scotland’s Kim Little,  Brazilian forward Marta and Liverpool and Nigerian youngster Asisat Oshoala.

The voting process can be found here.

Although the award is for the year 2015, it is really voted for what the players have achieved in 2014 and early 2015.

Nadine Kessler has already won the FIFA Women Player of the year which is the equivalent of the Ballon d’Or for women players. She has won a double with her team Wolfsburg, winning the Frauen Bundesliga and the Women’s Champions League.  She also won the UEFA’s best Women’s Player in Europe 2014 award.

Veronica Boquete has had a nomadic season playing in 2014 for Tyreso in Sweden finishing runner-up in the Champions League, then moving to Portland Throns in the NWSL in the USA and currently plays for 1.FFC Frankfurt in Germany.  She is a very creative forward, providing goals and assists to her side.

Asisat Oshoala plays her club football for Liverpool Ladies and signed up during the winter transfer window. She has won the Golden Ball at the FIFA U20 World Cup 2014 in Canada as well as the Golden Boot and has impressed on the World’s stage enough to earn a move to the FA WSL.

Marta is the a world superstar in Women’s football, playing in Sweden with Rosengard, she was runner-up in the Women’s Champions League with Tyreso and has been in the FIFA Women’s player of the Year award’s top three for many seasons.

Kim Little is a Scotland international playing in the NWSL with the Seattle Reign. She was voted MVP for the 2014 season, was also the Golden Boot and second in assists. She lead the Reign to NWSL Shield (winning the regular season) and finished runner-up as they lost to Kansas City in the Championship game.

Those five players had excellent 2014 seasons and deserved to be nominated. it will be interesting to see how the fans will vote i.e. for their favourite player or the one that most deserves the prize.