FIFA World Player of the Year Award
In 1991, some 30 years after the Ballon d’Or was first awarded to Sir Stanley Matthews, FIFA commenced the awarding of their own award. The FIFA World Player of the Year.
The award uses a Borda Count system to tally votes. Simply put a Borda count involves voters ranking their candidates in order of preference. Each rank of preference is assigned a certain point value. Once all the voters have been counted the player with the most points is declared the winner.
Initially voting in the award was restricted to international coaches. Each coach was given three votes, worth five points, three points and one point. Coaches were free to vote on whoever they felt worthy of the title of the World’s Best Player.
This eventually led to some criticism after some rather questionable nominations. FIFA’s response was to provide voters with a shortlist of players to choose from. This change was introduced in 2004. At the same time FIFA expanded the amount of voters to include International Captains and select representatives from FIFPro.
It’s interesting to see FIFPro representatives get votes, effectively this means that they have influence over two of the major individual awards in Football with their own FIFPro award commencing in 2005.
The FIFA award has come under scrutiny due to the fact that it tends to focus mainly on players playing in Europe’s top competition, the UEFA Champions League. Players who have played outside of Europe have in the past been overlooked for nomination. Indeed the only player who has played outside of Europe and been nominated was Juan Roman Riquelme. Even then he only spent half the year playing for Boca Juniors in Argentina, the rest of the year was spent with his Spanish club Villarreal.
Whilst the Footballing world would generally consider the UEFA Champions League to be of a higher standard than it’s South American equivalent the Copa Libertadores. It’s the Copa that has produced the most World Club Champions. I think it’s fair to say that clubs from the South American traditionally took the World Club Championship more seriously than their European counterparts. This is changing though as we’ve seen in recent years, with AC Milan and Manchester United’s recent victories.
Another aspect of the FIFA award which is noteworthy is that since 2001 it’s been the only major award that has been awarded to both men and women. Mia Hamm was the first recipient of the female award.
Since the inception of the men’s award in 1991, Brazilian players have dominated the male awards, winning 8 out of the 18 awards to have been awarded.
Ronaldo and Zidane have won the award three times, likewise Birgit Prinz and Marta have won the female award three times.
The oldest male winner was Fabio Cannavaro who won the 2006 award when he whilst 33, whilst Mia Hamm is the oldest female winner at 30. The youngest male reciepent is Ronaldo who was 20 when he won in 1996, whilst Marta is the youngest female who was also 20 when she won the award for the first time in 2006.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the current holder of the male award, whilst Marta is the current holder of the female award.
Male FIFA World Player of the Year Award:
| Year | Rank | Player | Nation | Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 1st | Cristiano Ronaldo |  Portugal |
 Manchester United |
| 2nd | Lionel Messi |  Argentina |
 FC Barcelona |
|
| 3rd | Fernando Torres | Spain |
Liverpool |
|
| 2007 | 1st | Kaká |  Brazil |
 Milan |
| 2nd | Lionel Messi | Argentina |
FC Barcelona |
|
| 3rd | Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal |
Manchester United |
|
| 2006 | 1st | Fabio Cannavaro | Italy |
Juventus |
| 2nd | Zinedine Zidane |  France |
Real Madrid |
|
| 3rd | Ronaldinho | Brazil |
FC Barcelona |
|
| 2005 | 1st | Ronaldinho | Brazil |
Barcelona |
| 2nd | Frank Lampard | England |
Chelsea |
|
| 3rd | Samuel Eto’o |  Cameroon |
FC Barcelona |
|
| 2004 | 1st | Ronaldinho | Brazil |
Barcelona |
| 2nd | Thierry Henry | France |
Arsenal |
|
| 3rd | Andriy Shevchenko |  Ukraine |
Milan |
|
| 2003 | 1st | Zinedine Zidane | France |
Real Madrid |
| 2nd | Thierry Henry | France |
Arsenal |
|
| 3rd | Ronaldo | Brazil |
Real Madrid |
|
| 2002 | 1st | Ronaldo | Brazil |
Real Madrid Internazionale |
| 2nd | Oliver Kahn |  Germany |
Bayern Munich |
|
| 3rd | Zinedine Zidane | France |
Real Madrid |
|
| 2001 | 1st | Luís Figo | Portugal |
Real Madrid |
| 2nd | David Beckham | England |
Manchester United |
|
| 3rd | Raúl | Spain |
Real Madrid |
|
| 2000 | 1st | Zinedine Zidane | France |
Juventus |
| 2nd | Luís Figo | Portugal |
Real Madrid FC Barcelona |
|
| 3rd | Rivaldo | Brazil |
FC Barcelona |
|
| 1999 | 1st | Rivaldo | Brazil |
FC Barcelona |
| 2nd | David Beckham | England |
Manchester United |
|
| 3rd | Gabriel Batistuta | Argentina |
Fiorentina |
|
| 1998 | 1st | Zinedine Zidane | France |
Juventus |
| 2nd | Ronaldo | Brazil |
Internazionale |
|
| 3rd | Davor Šuker |  Croatia |
Real Madrid |
|
| 1997 | 1st | Ronaldo | Brazil |
Internazionale FC Barcelona |
| 2nd | Roberto Carlos | Brazil |
Real Madrid |
|
| 3rd (tie) |
Dennis Bergkamp |  Netherlands |
Arsenal |
|
| Zinedine Zidane | France |
Juventus |
||
| 1996 | 1st | Ronaldo | Brazil |
FC Barcelona PSV |
| 2nd | George Weah |  Liberia |
Milan |
|
| 3rd | Alan Shearer | England |
Newcastle United Blackburn |
|
| 1995 | 1st | George Weah | Liberia |
Milan Paris Saint-Germain |
| 2nd | Paolo Maldini | Italy |
Milan |
|
| 3rd | Jürgen Klinsmann | Germany |
Bayern Munich Tottenham Hotspur |
|
| 1994 | 1st | Romário | Brazil |
FC Barcelona |
| 2nd | Hristo Stoichkov |  Bulgaria |
FC Barcelona |
|
| 3rd | Roberto Baggio | Italy |
Juventus |
|
| 1993 | 1st | Roberto Baggio | Italy |
Juventus |
| 2nd | Romário | Brazil |
FC Barcelona |
|
| 3rd | Dennis Bergkamp | Netherlands |
Internazionale Ajax |
|
| 1992 | 1st | Marco van Basten | Netherlands |
Milan |
| 2nd | Hristo Stoichkov | Bulgaria |
FC Barcelona |
|
| 3rd | Thomas Häßler | Germany |
AS Roma |
|
| 1991 | 1st | Lothar Matthäus | Germany |
Internazionale |
| 2nd | Jean-Pierre Papin | France |
Marseille |
|
| 3rd | Gary Lineker | England |
Tottenham Hotspur |
Female FIFA World Player of the Year Award:
| Year | Place | Player | Nationality | Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 1st | Marta | Brazil |
 Umeå IK |
| 2nd | Birgit Prinz | Germany |
Frankfurt |
|
| 3rd | Cristiane | Brazil |
Linköpings/ Corinthians |
|
| 2007 | 1st | Marta | Brazil |
Umeå IK |
| 2nd | Birgit Prinz | Germany |
1. FFC Frankfurt |
|
| 3rd | Cristiane | Brazil |
VfL Wolfsburg |
|
| 2006 | 1st | Marta | Brazil |
Umeå IK |
| 2nd | Kristine Lilly |  United States |
KIF Örebro DFF |
|
| 3rd | Renate Lingor | Germany |
1. FFC Frankfurt |
|
| 2005 | 1st | Birgit Prinz | Germany |
1. FFC Frankfurt |
| 2nd | Marta | Brazil |
Umeå IK |
|
| 3rd | Shannon Boxx | United States |
||
| 2004 | 1st | Birgit Prinz | Germany |
1. FFC Frankfurt |
| 2nd | Mia Hamm | United States |
W. Freedom retired |
|
| 3rd | Marta | Brazil |
Umeå IK |
|
| 2003 | 1st | Birgit Prinz | Germany |
1. FFC Frankfurt |
| 2nd | Mia Hamm | United States |
Washington Freedom |
|
| 3rd | Hanna Ljungberg | Sweden |
Umeå IK |
|
| 2002 | 1st | Mia Hamm | United States |
Washington Freedom |
| 2nd | Birgit Prinz | Germany |
1. FFC Frankfurt |
|
| 3rd | Sun Wen |  China PR |
Atlanta Beat |
|
| 2001 | 1st | Mia Hamm | United States |
Washington Freedom |
| 2nd | Tiffeny Milbrett | United States |
New York Power |
|
| 3rd | Sun Wen | China PR |
Atlanta Beat |
Topics: General Football News
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