FIFA World Player of the Year

The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award given annually to the male and female player who were thought to be the best in the world, based on votes by coaches and captains of international teams. In a voting system based on positional voting, each coach had three votes, worth five points, three points and one point, and the winners were ordered based on total number of points.

The award started in 1991 for men and 2001 for women. During the award's duration, European-based Brazilian players dominated the male awards, winning 8 out of 18 editions of the prize, far ahead of the second country France, which won it three times.

The award's youngest winner, male or female, was Ronaldo, who won at the age of 20 in 1996. He won it again in 1997 and 2002. Marta is the only player to win it five times in a row; Birgit Prinz won three times in a row, while Ronaldo, Mia Hamm and Ronaldinho won twice in a row. Marta is the only five-time winner, while Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and Prinz have won the award three times. 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 (seven months older than Ronaldo in 1996).

In 2010, the FIFA World Player of the Year and France Football's Ballon d'Or award were merged and the world's best player has since been awarded the FIFA Ballon d'Or each year.^[1]

Nomination and selection process

Following criticism from some sections of the media over some 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.^[2]

Another criticism brought up against the men's nominations was that no player in activity outside of Europe was ever nominated for the award. Juan Román Riquelme was 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 for the first half of 2007. Although players from several nationalities, of three continents, were nominated and won the award, they were all playing for European clubs at the time of their nomination or victory.

It was also suggested that players active in the leagues of other top non-European nations (such as the Argentine, the Brazilian or the Mexican Leagues), were generally overlooked for the award. Brazilian club teams won the first three editions of the FIFA Club World Cup, 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

Wins by player

Wins by country

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

* There was a tie for that place

Wins by club

*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

Wins by player

Wins by country

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

Wins by club

See also

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

Notes and references