By Andrew Warshaw
January 9 – Argentina and Barcelona wizard Lionel Messi as expected was crowned World Player of the Year at a glittering FIFA gala in Zurich tonight – picking up the Ballon d’Or award for the third year running.
The little magician, who beat club mate Xavi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo – the other two finalists – became only the third player to win the prize three times alongside Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.
He was also the first to triumph in three successive years.
Messi, widely regarded as one of the three best players ever to play the game along with Pelé and Diego Maradona, won 47.88 per cent of the votes, more than double that of Ronaldo (21.6 per cent) and way ahead of Xavi (9.23 per cent).
Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola was voted 2011 Coach of the Year following last season’s showpiece European Champions League victory over Manchester United at Wembley.
He clinched 41.92 per cent of the votes with United’s Alex Ferguson polling 15.61 per cent and Jose Mourinho, Portuguese coach of Real Madrid, 12.43 per cent.
Japan’s Homare Sawa (pictured) claimed her first Women’s Player of the Year award, while Norio Sasaki clinched the women’s coach of the year – both as a result of Japan’s thrilling Women’s World Cup final victory over the favoured United States.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was given the FIFA Presidential award for services to football.
The 70-year-old Scot (pictured left) was presented with the award by FIFA President Sepp Blatter (right) at the gala.
“Elite football is all about results and winning and there is no one better at it than him,” said Blatter.
“His first major success came at Aberdeen in 1983 but what is absolutely extraordinary is that in a world in which coaches are expected to produce instant results or be changed, his longevity is a shining example of what can be achieved through stability, continuity, investment in development and especially in trust and confidence in the personality himself.
All the main awards were decided after a poll in which the captains and head coaches of the men’s (for the two men’s football awards) and women’s (for the two women’s football awards) national teams, as well as international media representatives selected by French football magazine France Football, voted in each of the four categories.
The FIFA Fair Play Award went to the Japan Football Association (JFA), while FIFPro, the world players’ union, had invited 50,000 professional players from all over the world to select their best team of 2011, resulting in the following eleven:
Iker Casillas (Spain); Dani Alves (Brazil), Gerard Piqué (Spain), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Nemanja Vidić (Serbia); Xabi Alonso (Spain), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Xavi (Spain); Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Wayne Rooney (England).
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