The FIFA World Player of the Year was an
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
award presented annually by the sport's governing body,
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 ...
, between 1991 and 2015 at the
FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representatives selected the player they deem to have performed the best in the previous calendar year.
Originally a single award for the world's best men's player, parallels awards for men and women were awarded from 2001 to 2009. The men's award was subsumed into the
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 ...
in 2010 while the women's award remained until 2015. After 2015 both men's and women's awards became part of
The Best FIFA Football Awards
The Best FIFA Football Awards is an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA.
The first awarding ceremony was held on 9 January 2017 in Zürich, Switzerland. The award is aimed at reviving the FIFA Wo ...
.
During the men's era, Brazilian players won 8 out of 19 years, compared to three wins – the second most – for French players. In terms of individual players, Brazil again led with five, followed by Italy and Portugal with two each.
The youngest winner was
Ronaldo
Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, being also prevalent in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries. People
Notable people known as Ronaldo include:
As ...
, who won at 20 years old in 1996, and the oldest winner was
Fabio Cannavaro, who won aged 33 in 2006. Ronaldo and
Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...
each won the award three times, while Ronaldo and
Ronaldinho
Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born 21 March 1980), commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho () or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian retired professional association football, footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder, but was also deplo ...
were the only players to win in successive years. From 2010 to 2015, the equivalent men's award was the
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 ...
, following a merging of the FIFA World Player of the Year and the
France Football Ballon d'Or awards. Since 2016, the awards have been replaced by
The Best FIFA Men's Player
The Best FIFA Men's Player is an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, since 2016, to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year. The award was formerly known ...
and
The Best FIFA Women's Player
The Best FIFA Women's Player is a football
award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, since 2016, to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year. From 2001 to 2015, the award was know ...
awards.
Eight women's footballers – three Germans, three Americans, one Brazilian, and one Japanese – have won the award.
Marta, the youngest recipient at age 20 in 2006, has won five successive awards, the most of any player.
Birgit Prinz
Birgit Prinz (born 25 October 1977) is a German former footballer, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and three-time FIFA World Player of the Year. In addition to the German national team, Prinz played for 1. FFC Frankfurt in the Frauen- ...
won three times in a row and
Mia Hamm
Mariel Margaret Hamm-Garciaparra (; born March 17, 1972) is an American retired professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Hailed as a soccer icon, she played as a forward for the ...
won twice in a row. The oldest winner is
Nadine Angerer, who was 35 when she won in 2013; she is also the only
goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
of either sex to win.
Voting and selection process
The winners are chosen by the coaches and captains of national teams as well as by international media representatives invited by FIFA. In a voting system based on
positional voting
Positional voting is a ranked voting electoral system in which the options or candidates receive points based on their rank position on each ballot and the one with the most points overall wins. The lower-ranked preference in any adjacent pair i ...
, each voter is allotted three votes, worth five points, three points and one point, and the three finalists are ordered based on total number of points. Following criticism from some sections of the media over nominations in previous years, FIFA has since 2004 provided shortlists from which its voters can select their choices.
FIFA World Player of the Year
Source:
From 2010 to 2015, the award was merged with the
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 ...
to become the
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 ...
in a six-year partnership with ''
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 ...
''. In 2016, FIFA rebranded the award as
The Best FIFA Men's Player
The Best FIFA Men's Player is an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, since 2016, to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year. The award was formerly known ...
.
Wins by player
Wins by country
Wins by club
FIFA Women's World Player of the Year
Source:
In 2016, FIFA created
The Best FIFA Women's Player
The Best FIFA Women's Player is a football
award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, since 2016, to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year. From 2001 to 2015, the award was know ...
award instead.
Wins by player
Wins by country
Wins by club
See also
*
List of sports awards honoring women
This list of sports awards honoring women is an index to articles about notable awards honoring sportswomen. The list gives the country of the sponsoring organization, but some awards are open to sportswomen around the world. The list includes sub ...
*
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 ...
*
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 ...
*
The Best FIFA Football Awards
The Best FIFA Football Awards is an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA.
The first awarding ceremony was held on 9 January 2017 in Zürich, Switzerland. The award is aimed at reviving the FIFA Wo ...
*
FIFPro World11
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fifa World Player Of The Year
Player of the Year
Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award.
Association football
In association football, this award is he ...
Awards established in 1991
Awards established in 2001
Awards disestablished in 2009
Awards disestablished in 2015
Lists of women's association football players
Women's association football player of the year awards
Association football player non-biographical articles