The 33-year-old Cannavaro, who lifted Italy's fourth World Cup trophy on July 9, received the Ballon d'Or award at a ceremony on Monday.
PARIS: Fabio Cannavaro, who rose from World Cup ball boy to World Cup-winning captain, has been named European Footballer of the Year and awarded the Golden Ball award.
The 33-year-old Cannavaro, who lifted Italy's fourth World Cup trophy on July 9 in Berlin after the team beat France on penalties, received the Ballon d'Or award at a ceremony on Monday.
He beat fellow-Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and Frenchman Thierry Henry in the 51st edition of the poll conducted by French magazine France Football among 52 football journalists (one for each member federation of UEFA).
Cannavaro was delighted with the honour, telling a French television audience, "I am very moved because as a defender, this award has a double meaning".
Cannavaro said he is the first pure defender to win the award as Germans Matthias Sammer, who won it 10 years ago, and Franz Beckenbauer, twice winner in the 1970s, displayed their skills also as classy midfield playmakers.
He also recalled all the highlights of his past year, including taking the World Cup and moving on to Real Madrid, which he called one of the great teams in the world.
"This has really been a golden year for me," he said, referring to the name of the award, which translates into "the Golden Ball" in English.
In the balloting, Cannavaro received 173 points, well ahead of Buffon's 124 and Henry's 121. Last year's Ballon d'Or winner, Barcelona's Brazilian midfielder Ronaldinho, was placed fourth in the balloting, with 73 points.
Cannavaro is the fifth Italian, and the sixth player from Real Madrid, to win the honour.
Previous Italian footballers to win the award are Omar Sivori (who also had Argentinian citizenship) in 1961, Gianni Rivera in 1969, Paolo Rossi in 1982 and Roberto Baggio in 1993.
Cannavaro, who left relegated Juventus Turin for Real Madrid in summer, was a ball boy at the 1990 World Cup semi-final between Italy and Argentina in his hometown Naples.
He started his career at Napoli (1992-1995) and after a stint at Parma (2002-2004) moved on to Juventus before his summer transfer to Real once Juve were relegated over a match fixing scheme.
Cannavaro, a short but powerful centre back, has been said to possess the old-style defence skills typical of Italy's game based on solid and ruthless defence packages coupled with fast, opportunistic strikers.
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