FIFA World Player of the Year
The
FIFA World Player of the Year is a
football award given annually to the male and female player who is 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 award started in
1991 for men and
2001 for women.
The award's youngest winner is
Ronaldo, who won at the age of 20 in
1996. He won it again in
1997 and along with
Ronaldinho is the only player to have won twice in a row.
Ronaldo and
Zinedine Zidane are the only three-time winners.
In women's football,
Mia Hamm and
Birgit Prinz have both won twice in a row. Prinz the only one to have won three consecutively.
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 [
1].
Another criticism brought up against the nominations is that, in the men's award, no player in activity outside of
Europe has ever been nominated for the award. 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. It has been suggested that players active even in the more prestigious Leagues in
Latin America (such as the Argentine, the Brazilian or the Mexican Leagues), are generally overlooked for the award. Others have noted that because of the money involved almost all of the world's best players play in European leagues by the time they mature as players.
La Liga players have won the award 5 years running.
List of male winners
List of female winners
