The 2012

FIFA Ballon d'Or The FIFA Ballon d'Or ("Golden Ball") was an annual association football award presented to the world's best men's player from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and ''France Football'', the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Ye ...

Gala was the third year for

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

's awards for the top

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

players and coaches of the year. The awards were given out in

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

on 7 January 2013, with Lionel Messi winning a record fourth consecutive

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine ''France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (fo ...

. The gala ceremony was hosted by former Ballon d'Or winner

Ruud Gullit Ruud Gullit (; born Rudi Dil; 1 September 1962) is a Dutch footballer and subsequent manager who played professionally in the 1980s and 1990s as a defender, midfielder or forward. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all t ...

and broadcast journalist Kay Murray of

Real Madrid TV Real Madrid TV is a free digital television channel, operated by Real Madrid specialising in the Spanish football club. The channel is available in Spanish and English. It is located at Ciudad Real Madrid in Valdebebas (Madrid), Real Madrid's tra ...

and

Fox Soccer Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel & Fox Sports World before that) was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by Fox Corporation, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian ...

Winners and nominees

FIFA Ballon d'Or

A shortlist of 23 male players was compiled by members of FIFA's Football Committee as well as a group of experts from ''

France Football ''France Football'' is a French weekly magazine containing football news from all over the world. It is considered to be one of the most reputable sports publications in Europe, mostly because of its photographic reports, in-depth and exclusiv ...

''. It was announced on 29 October 2012. There were three voters per FIFA member federation, one journalist and the coaches and captain of the national men's team. Each picked a first (5 points), second (3 points) and third choice (1 point), with their choices made public by FIFA. This was cut to a set of three "finalists" –

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

Andrés Iniesta Andrés Iniesta Luján (; born 11 May 1984) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder and is the captain of J1 League club Vissel Kobe. Considered one of the greatest midfielders of all time, Iniesta has spent most of his ...

and

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

– on 29 November 2012. The odds-on favourite Lionel Messi won the award. Messi won all three FIFA Ballons d'Or since its inception in 2010 and also won both predecessor awards (the

and

FIFA World Player of the Year The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, between 1991 and 2015 at the FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representativ ...

) in 2009. The results for the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or were: The following 20 men were originally in contention for the 2012 FIFA Ballon d’Or:

FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

On 25 October 2012, a ten-player shortlist was unveiled for the FIFA's Women's Player of the Year, which was chosen by experts from FIFA's Committee for Women's Football and the FIFA Women's World Cup and a group of experts from France Football. The voting system used was the same as that of the men's award (see above), with coaches and captains of women's national teams and persons from the media making public top-three selections.

FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football

This award was decided by the same voters and system as that of the men's player award.

FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football

This award was decided by the same voters and system as that of the women's player award.

FIFA/FIFPro World XI

This was the first occasion that all 11 FIFPro World XI players were players from the same league (

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

FIFA Puskás Award

The Puskás Award for best goal was decided by a public online vote.

FIFA Presidential Award

Franz Beckenbauer Franz Anton Beckenbauer (, ; born 11 September 1945) is a German former professional footballer and manager. In his playing career he was nicknamed ''Der Kaiser'' ("The Emperor") because of his elegant style, dominance and leadership on the fi ...

FIFA Fair Play Award

Uzbekistan Football Federation The Uzbekistan Football Association ( uz, Oʻzbekiston Futbol Federatsiyasi) is the governing body of football in Uzbekistan, controlling the Uzbekistan national team. History Uzbekistan Football Federation was founded in 1946, while Uzbekistan ...

References

External links

* {{FIFA Puskás Award 2012 in association football FIFA Ballon d'Or 2012 sports awards 2012–13 in Swiss football Women's association football trophies and awards 2012 in women's association football