FIFA World Player of the Year

The FIFA World Player of the Year is an Association football award given annually to the male and female player who are thought to be the best in the world, based on votes by coaches and captains of international teams. In a voting system based on a type of a Borda count, each coach gets three votes, worth five points, three points and one point, and the winners are ordered based on total number of points. The male award has been criticized for focusing mainly on players from the UEFA Champion's League and largely ignoring players from the South American Copa Libertadores, which has produced more world club champions than Europe. The international leagues of the remaining confederations are also completely ignored.

The award started in 1991 for men and 2001 for women. Since the award's inception, European-based Brazilian players have dominated the male awards, having won 8 out of 17 editions of the prize, including the most recent 2007, far ahead of the top second country France, which has won it 3 times.

The award's youngest winner, male or female, is Ronaldo, who won at the age of 20 in 1996. He won it again in 1997 and 2002. Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Mia Hamm, Birgit Prinz, and Marta are the only players to have won twice in a row. Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Prinz are the only three-time winners. The oldest winner is Fabio Cannavaro who won in 2006 at age 33. The oldest female winner is Hamm, who won in 2002 at age 30, and the youngest female winner is Marta, who won in 2006 at age 20 (but was seven months older than was Ronaldo in 1996).

Nomination and selection process

Following criticism from some sections of the media over questionable nominations in previous years, in 2004 FIFA drew up a shortlist of 35 men and 21 women from which national team managers and, for the first time, team captains and representatives from FIFPro (the worldwide representative organization for professional players) could vote.

Another criticism brought up against the men's nominations is that no player in activity outside of Europe has ever been nominated for the award. Juan Román Riquelme is the only player nominated for the annual award who played for a team outside Europe within the year, on loan to Boca Juniors from Villarreal CF for the first half of 2007. Although players from several nationalities, of three continents, have been nominated and won the award, they were all playing for European clubs at the time of their nomination or victory, for which the European Footballer of the Year award is already been given out.

It has also been suggested that players active in the leagues of other top non-European nations (such as the Argentine, the Brazilian, or the Mexican Leagues), are generally overlooked for the award. Brazilian club teams have won the first three editions of the official FIFA club world championship, yet not one player from those teams was nominated for the men's world player of the year award. Whereas the European champions that the Brazilian club teams beat in the last two finals had more than a few players nominated for the award.

Winners

List of male winners

2007 Details	1st	Kaka	Brazil	AC Milan
	2nd	Lionel Messi	Argentina	FC Barcelona
	3rd	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Manchester United
2006 Details	1st	Fabio Cannavaro	Italy	Real Madrid Juventus F.C.
	2nd	Zinedine Zidane	France	Real Madrid
	3rd	Ronaldinho	Brazil	FC Barcelona
2005 Details	1st	Ronaldinho	Brazil	FC Barcelona
	2nd	Frank Lampard	England	Chelsea
	3rd	Samuel Eto'o	Cameroon	FC Barcelona
2004 Details	1st	Ronaldinho	Brazil	FC Barcelona
	2nd	Thierry Henry	France	Arsenal
	3rd	Andriy Shevchenko	Ukraine	AC Milan
2003 Details	1st	Zinedine Zidane	France	Real Madrid
	2nd	Thierry Henry	France	Arsenal
	3rd	Ronaldo	Brazil	Real Madrid
2002 Details	1st	Ronaldo	Brazil	Real Madrid F.C. Internazionale
	2nd	Oliver Kahn	Germany	Bayern Munich
	3rd	Zinedine Zidane	France	Real Madrid
2001 Details	1st	Luís Figo	Portugal	Real Madrid
	2nd	David Beckham	England	Manchester United
	3rd	Raúl	Spain	Real Madrid
2000 Details	1st	Zinedine Zidane	France	Juventus F.C.
	2nd	Luís Figo	Portugal	Real Madrid FC Barcelona
	3rd	Rivaldo	Brazil	FC Barcelona
1999 Details	1st	Rivaldo	Brazil	FC Barcelona
	2nd	David Beckham	England	Manchester United
	3rd	Gabriel Batistuta	Argentina	AC Fiorentina
1998 Details	1st	Zinedine Zidane	France	Juventus F.C.
	2nd	Ronaldo	Brazil	F.C. Internazionale
	3rd	Davor Šuker	Croatia	Real Madrid
1997 Details	1st	Ronaldo	Brazil	F.C. Internazionale FC Barcelona
	2nd	Roberto Carlos	Brazil	Real Madrid
	3rd (tie)	Dennis Bergkamp	Netherlands	Arsenal
		Zinedine Zidane	France	Juventus F.C.
1996 Details	1st	Ronaldo	Brazil	FC Barcelona PSV
	2nd	George Weah	Liberia	A.C. Milan
	3rd	Alan Shearer	England	Newcastle United Blackburn
1995 Details	1st	George Weah	Liberia	A.C. Milan Paris Saint-Germain
	2nd	Paolo Maldini	Italy	A.C. Milan
	3rd	Jürgen Klinsmann	Germany	Bayern Munich Tottenham Hotspur
1994 Details	1st	Romário	Brazil	FC Barcelona
	2nd	Hristo Stoichkov	Bulgaria	FC Barcelona
	3rd	Roberto Baggio	Italy	Juventus F.C.
1993 Details	1st	Roberto Baggio	Italy	Juventus F.C.
	2nd	Romário	Brazil	FC Barcelona
	3rd	Dennis Bergkamp	Netherlands	F.C. Internazionale Ajax Amsterdam
1992 Details	1st	Marco van Basten	Netherlands	A.C. Milan
	2nd	Hristo Stoichkov	Bulgaria	FC Barcelona
	3rd	Thomas Häßler	Germany	AS Roma
1991 Details	1st	Lothar Matthäus	Germany	F.C. Internazionale
	2nd	Jean-Pierre Papin	France	Olympique Marseille
	3rd	Gary Lineker	England	Tottenham Hotspur

Players' all-time ranking by places (top 3)

	Player	First place	Second place	Third place
1	Zidane	3	1	2
2	Ronaldo	3	1	1
3	Ronaldinho	2	0	1
4	Luís Figo	1	1	0
4	Romário	1	1	0
4	George Weah	1	1	0
7	Rivaldo	1	0	1
7	Roberto Baggio	1	0	1
9	Lothar Matthäus	1	0	0
9	Marco Van Basten	1	0	0
9	Kaká	1	0	0
9	Fabio Cannavaro	1	0	0
13	Hristo Stoitchkov	0	2	0
13	David Beckham	0	2	0
13	Thierry Henry	0	2	0
16	Jean-Pierre Papin	0	1	0
16	Roberto Carlos da Silva	0	1	0
16	Paolo Maldini	0	1	0
16	Oliver Kahn	0	1	0
16	Frank Lampard	0	1	0
16	Lionel Messi	0	1	0
22	Dennis Bergkamp	0	0	2
23	Gabriel Batistuta	0	0	1
23	Jürgen Klinsmann	0	0	1
23	Raúl González	0	0	1
23	Andriy Shevchenko	0	0	1
23	Gary Lineker	0	0	1
23	Thomas Häßler	0	0	1
23	Alan Shearer	0	0	1
23	Davor Šuker	0	0	1
23	Samuel Eto'o	0	0	1
23	Cristiano Ronaldo	0	0	1

Wins by country

Table of winners categorised by the player's nationality (not the nationality of his club).

	Country	First place	Second place	Third place
1	Brazil	8 (1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007)	3 (1993, 1997, 1998)	3 (2000, 2003, 2006)
2	France	3 (1998, 2000, 2003)	4 (1991, 2003, 2004, 2006)	2 (1997*, 2002)
3	Italy	2 (1993, 2006)	1 (1995)	1 (1994)
4	Germany	1 (1991)	1 (2002)	2 (1992, 1995)
5	Portugal	1 (2001)	1 (2000)	1 (2007)
6	Liberia	1 (1995)	1 (1996)	0
7	Netherlands	1 (1992)	0	2 (1993, 1997*)
8	England	0	3 (1999, 2001, 2005)	2 (1991, 1996)
9	Bulgaria	0	2 (1992, 1994)	0
10	Argentina	0	1 (2007)	1 (1999)
=11	Croatia	0	0	1 (1998)
=11	Spain	0	0	1 (2001)
=11	Ukraine	0	0	1 (2004)
=11	Cameroon	0	0	1 (2005)

* There was a tie for that place

Wins by club

	Club	First place	Second place	Third place
1	FC Barcelona	6 (1994, 1996*, 1997**, 1999, 2004, 2005)	5 (1992, 1993, 1994, 2000**, 2007)	3 (2000, 2005, 2006)
2	Real Madrid	4 (2001, 2002*, 2003, 2006*)	3 (1997, 2000*, 2006***)	4 (1998, 2001, 2002, 2003)
3	Juventus F.C.	4 (1993, 1998, 2000, 2006**)	0	2 (1994, 1997)
4	A.C. Milan	3 (1992, 1995*, 2007)	2 (1995, 1996)	1 (2004)
5	F.C. Internazionale	3 (1991, 1997*, 2002**)	1 (1998)	1 (1993*)
6	Paris Saint-Germain	1 (1995**)	0	0
=	PSV Eindhoven	1 (1996**)	0	0
8	Arsenal	0	2 (2003, 2004)	1 (1997)
=	Manchester United	0	2 (1999, 2001)	1 (2007)
10	Bayern Munich	0	1 (2002)	1 (1995*)
11	Tottenham Hotspur	0	0	2 (1991, 1995**)
12	Chelsea	0	1 (2005)	0
=	Olympique Marseille	0	1 (1991)	0
14	AC Fiorentina	0	0	1 (1999)
=	Newcastle United	0	0	1 (1996*)
=	Blackburn Rovers	0	0	1 (1996**)
=	Ajax Amsterdam	0	0	1 (1993**)
=	AS Roma	0	0	1 (1992)

*Player was a member of the club for the second half of the calendar year (The first part of a new season - August to December).
**Player was a member of the club for the first half of the calendar year (The second part of a finished season - January to May).
***Player retired half way through the calendar year so was a member of the club only for the first half of the calendar year (The second part of a finished season - January to May).

List of female winners

Year	Place	Player	Nationality	Club
2007 Details	1st	Marta	Brazil	Umeå IK
	2nd	Birgit Prinz	Germany	1. FFC Frankfurt
	3rd	Cristiane	Brazil	VfL Wolfsburg
2006 Details	1st	Marta	Brazil	Umeå IK
	2nd	Kristine Lilly	United States	KIF Örebro DFF
	3rd	Renate Lingor	Germany	1. FFC Frankfurt
2005 Details	1st	Birgit Prinz	Germany	1. FFC Frankfurt
	2nd	Marta	Brazil	Umeå IK
	3rd	Shannon Boxx	United States
2004 Details	1st	Birgit Prinz	Germany	1. FFC Frankfurt
	2nd	Mia Hamm	United States	W. Freedom retired
	3rd	Marta	Brazil	Umeå IK
2003 Details	1st	Birgit Prinz	Germany	1. FFC Frankfurt
	2nd	Mia Hamm	United States	Washington Freedom
	3rd	Hanna Ljungberg	Sweden	Umeå IK
2002 Details	1st	Mia Hamm	United States	Washington Freedom
	2nd	Birgit Prinz	Germany	1. FFC Frankfurt
	3rd	Sun Wen	China	Atlanta Beat
2001 Details	1st	Mia Hamm	United States	Washington Freedom
	2nd	Tiffeny Milbrett	United States	New York Power
	3rd	Sun Wen	China	Atlanta Beat

Players' all-time ranking by places (top 3)

	Player	First place	Second place	Third place
1	Birgit Prinz	3	2	0
2	Mia Hamm	2	2	0
3	Marta	2	1	1
4	Tiffeny Milbrett	0	1	0
	Kristine Lilly	0	1	0
6	Sun Wen	0	0	2
7	Hanna Ljungberg	0	0	1
	Shannon Boxx	0	0	1
	Renate Lingor	0	0	1
	Cristiane	0	0	1

Wins by country

Table of winners categorised by the player's nationality (not the nationality of her club).

	Country	First place	Second place	Third place
1	Germany	3 (2003, 2004, 2005)	2 (2002, 2007)	1 (2006)
2	United States	2 (2001, 2002)	4 (2001, 2003, 2004, 2006)	1 (2005)
3	Brazil	2 (2006, 2007)	1 (2005)	2 (2004, 2007)
4	China	0	0	2 (2001, 2002)
5	Sweden	0	0	1 (2003)

Wins by club

	Club	First place	Second place	Third place
1	1. FFC Frankfurt	3 (2003, 2004, 2005)	2 (2002, 2007)	1 (2006)
2	Umeå IK	2 (2006, 2007)	1 (2005)	2 (2003, 2004)
3	Washington Freedom	2 (2001, 2002)	2 (2003, 2004)	0
4	KIF Örebro DFF	0	1 (2006)	0
5	New York Power	0	1 (2001)	0
6	Atlanta Beat	0	0	2 (2001, 2002)
7	VfL Wolfsburg	0	0	1 (2007)

See also

• Ballon d'Or
• FIFPro World Player of the Year