Manchester United and Portugal mercurical winger - Cristiano Ronaldo beat off competition from Lionel Messi, Xavi, as well as Fernando Torres, and last year’s winner Kaka, to win the FIFA World Player of the Year Award with a total of 935 vote points.
In second place was Barcelona star Lionel Messi with 678, while Liverpool striker Fernando Torres finished third with 203.
AC Milan star Kaka was not far behind in fourth with 183, while Barcelona's Xavi ended up fifth with 155.
The attacking wideman had a magnificent 2007/08 season, scoring 42 goals for Manchester United, and capturing the Premier League, Champions League and European Golden Boot.
He followed this up this term by lifting the Club World Cup in Japan.
Ronaldo caps off a clean sweep of the major awards, having also picked up the prestigious Ballon d'Or (European Footballer of the Year) at the end of 2008.
The 23-year-old becomes the first English-based player to be named FIFA World Player of the Year, and only the second Portuguese, following in the footsteps of Luis Figo, who triumphed in 2001.
In the women's category, Brazilian sensation Marta was victorious, winning for the third year in succession.
The FIFA Fair Play Awards went jointly to the Armenia and Turkey Football Federations for the work they did in helping bring the two countries together politically, socially and football-wise.
The FIFA Presidential Award was presented to the United States Women's National Team.
The Big Question is - when can a player from Malaysia, Singapore or Asia will be crowned best player in Europe and the World???? perhaps in 2020...
Asia has its own notabale soccer superstar - among them - Japan's Hidetoshi Nakata, Iran's Ali Daei and Karim Bagheri, Korea's Park Ji Sung??? but none of them has won that coveted title...
Definitely not in another few years. Still a gap to go
ReplyDeleteand why not a singaporean like you be crowned best female footbaler in the world in 2020??? hehehe
ReplyDelete