The world soccer body said the trio were confirmed after a poll of coaches and captains of national teams around the world selected them from a 30-strong shortlist.

The winner, who will succeed Fabio Cannavaro of Italy and Real Madrid from last year’s competition, will be announced at the FIFA World Player Gala in Zurich on Dec 17.

Ronaldo, 22, led Manchester United to the Premier League title last season, scoring 17 league goals.

He also helped United reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, where they lost to Milan.

If Kaka gets the nod it is likely to mean a double triumph, with the Brazilian set to be named winner of the Ballon d’Or on Sunday.

Kaka was the inspiration behind AC Milan’s Champions League success last season, finishing top scorer in the competition with 10 goals.

The 25-year-old opted to sit out the Copa America but he was hardly missed, as Brazil went on to take the trophy with a 3-0 victory over Argentina in the final.

Messi was in the Argentina side that lost that match.

The Barcelona forward, still only 20, missed out on the Spanish title last season – won by Real Madrid. Among the highlights of his year was the hat-trick he scored in a 3-3 draw with Real in the Primera Liga.

Kaka is the hot favourite to win this year’s prize, with Ronaldo likely to be fighting it out with Andrea Pirlo and Lionel Messi for second and third place.”I would vote for Cristiano Ronaldo as the best in the world,” Kaka told Brazilian newspaper ‘Globoesporte.’

“Not just for his quality, but also as he has been able to do so well with the Portugal jersey. Lionel Messi is a great player, but he has not won any titles this year.”

Kaka also spoke about his hopes to play at the World Cup in 2014. Brazil were recently awarded the rights to host the event.

“I would love to be the captain of Brazil in 2014,” said the 25-year-old.

“I think I’ll still be playing by then and it would be a marvellous experience, but I am aware for the moment that these are images I can only dream of.”

Other United players involved in international duty this week include Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick and Ben Foster, all for England. Meanwhile Jonny Evans (on loan to Sunderland) has been called up for the Northern Ireland squad. John O’Shea and Darron Gibson (on loan to Royal Antwerp) will be playing for Rep. of Ireland. Ryan Giggs and Tomasz Kuszczak will be peresenting Wales and Poland respectively.

More Reds could have been involved this week’s international fixutres but for the injuries to Gary Neville, Darren Fletcher, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Louis Saha and Mikael Silvestre.

Asian players Ji-sung Park and Dong Fangzhuo will be involved in friendlies.