Win All | The Italian captain is named World Footballer of the Year while the Brazilian takes the women’s crown.
Win All | The Italian captain is named World Footballer of the Year while the Brazilian takes the women’s crown
Fabio Cannavaro, who captained Italy to the World Cup title, has become the first defender to be named World Footballer of the Year. Cannavaro, 33, is only the second Italian to win the prestigious award, following Roberto Baggio in 1993. Like Baggio 13 years ago, the Real Madrid player Cannavaro also won the European Footballer award in the same year.
“This is an unbelievable moment and tops up the year,” said Cannavaro at a gala of the ruling body FIFA on Monday. The women’s award went to Brazil’s Marta after she came third in 2004 and second in 2005. Cannavaro received 498 votes in the annual poll conducted among national team coaches and captains by the world football governing body FIFA, beating now retired Frenchman Zinedine Zidane (454 votes) and Brazil’s Ronaldinho (380).
Ronaldinho, who helped Barcelona to the Spanish league title and the European Champions League trophy in 2006, won the award in the past two years. Zidane is a three-time winner. But Zidane’s chances were not rated high this year because his footballing career ended in shame in the World Cup final when he was red-carded for head-butting Italy’s Marco Materazzi in the chest. Ronaldinho did well for his club, but admitted Monday night that he was not at his best at the World Cup, where Brazil went out in the quarter-finals.
Italy went on to win the Berlin final July 9 on penalties, which allowed Cannavaro to lift the trophy on his 100th cap. He played a superb tournament in which Italy conceded just two goals in seven games. Cannavaro’s triumph comes 16 years after he was a ballboy at the Naples stadium when Italy lost the 1990 World Cup semi-final against Argentina.
The women’s award went to Marta, the Brazilian who plays for Swedish club Umea, gathering 475 votes. Kristine Lilly of the US was second with 388 votes and German Renate Lingor got 305 votes. Brazil were honoured as Team of the Year after dominating the FIFA rankings for the fifth year in a row. The Fair Play prize went to the fans at the World Cup, with not only almost all 64 matches a sellout, but a huge number of 16 million partying peacefully at the official Fanfests in Germany.
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