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 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 is the only male player to have won it twice in a row (Mia Hamm and Birgit Prinz have both achieved this feat in the women's section). Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane are the only three-time winners.
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]
List of male winners
List of female winners
Last updated: 10-29-2005 02:13:46
