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

, 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

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

Wins by player

Wins by country

Wins by club

FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

Source: In 2016, FIFA created

award instead.

Wins by player

Wins by country

Wins by club

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

Voting and selection process

FIFA World Player of the Year

Wins by player

Wins by country

Wins by club

FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

Wins by player

Wins by country

Wins by club

See also

Notes

References