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Fifa Player of the YearCannavaro Voted FIFA Player of the Year 2006Jan 01, 2007
Fabio Cannavaro was voted FIFA Player of the Year on Monday, becoming the first defender to earn the honor and only the second Italian.
Brazilian midfielder Marta was voted FIFA Women's Player of the Year, with U.S. forward Kristine Lilly finishing second. The 33-year-old Cannavaro, who captained Italy to its fourth World Cup title, finished with 498 points in voting by national team coaches and captains. Zinedine Zidane was second with 454 points. He was voted top player at the World Cup despite his ejection in the final for head-butting Marco Materazzi in overtime. Ronaldinho, who won the award in 2004 and 2005, was third with 380 points. The only other Italian voted world player of the year by FIFA was Roberto Baggio in 1993, two years after the award began. This was a tumultuous year for Italian soccer, which was upended by a scandal in which team officials were found to have fixed referee assignments for Serie A games. 2005 FIFA world player was awarded to RonaldinhoThe 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year prize was awarded to the Brazilian Ronaldinho for the second year in succession, also claiming the highest point total ever, surpassing Rivaldo. He finished ahead of Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard and his Barcelona teammate Samuel Eto'o in the final round of voting.Ronaldinho wins Fifa 2004 player award
Barcelona's Brazilian forward Ronaldinho has won the Fifa 2004 World Player
of the Year award.
Five points were awarded for a first place nomination, three for second and one for third. Ronaldinho gained 89 first place votes, Henry 79 and Shevchenko 34. Last year's winner Zinedine Zidane of Real Madrid, who announced his international retirement from the France team after Euro 2004, came fourth. Juventus and Czech Republic midfielder Pavel Nedved, last year's European Footballer of the Year finished fifth. Germany's Birgit Prinz won the women's award, ahead of American Mia Hamm and Brazilian youngster Marta. Ronaldinho was quick to hail Henry and Shevchenko after collecting his award. He also dismissed weekend speculation linking him with a move to Chelsea. He added: "I am of course very happy to have won the award. Thierry Henry and Andriy Shevchenko are two great players, we could all have won the award. "I feel very happy where I am at Barcelona and I will go on with my work in peace. "Every day that goes by, I feel happy with my choice of club. Every day brings a beautiful new surprise for me." Barca team-mate Giovanni van Bronckhorst told BBC Sport he thought Ronaldinho was a deserved winner of the prize. "He's so skilful with the ball and so fast and strong, you'd much rather play with him than against him," said Van Bronckhorst. "He is very important to us, he is like the crown jewels. He is the face of this team, like Henry is Arsenal's." Henry, who wore a Che Guevara T-shirt and a black-and-white wristband to make a stand against racism, admitted disappointment for not winning the trophy, but paid tribute to his two rivals. He said: "If you do not win you cannot say you are happy but the other two are tremendous players. "When you see what Shevchenko is doing in Serie A and Ronaldinho in Spain, they are the kind of players who make you jump off your seat. "To be here two years in a row means I have been consistent for a long time and that really pleases me."
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