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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

award presented annually by the sport's governing body,

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, between 1991 and 2015 at the

FIFA World Player Gala FIFA World Player Gala was an association football award show presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, throughout 1991–2009. The first awarding ceremony was held on 8 December 1991 in Zürich, Switzerland. The award show was su ...

. 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, parallel 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 Y ...

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 a 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 World Player Gal ...

. 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, also prevalent in other Romance countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: Association footballe ...

, who won at 20 years old in 1996, and the oldest winner was

Fabio Cannavaro Fabio Cannavaro (; born 13 September 1973) is an Italian professional association football, football coach and former player who last was the head coach of Croatian club GNK Dinamo Zagreb, Dinamo Zagreb. He is regarded as one of the greatest De ...

, who won aged 33 in 2006. Ronaldo and

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; ; ''Zineddin Lyazid Zidan''; ; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as an attacking midfi ...

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 former professional Association football, footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or left winger. Widely reg ...

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 known ...

awards. Eight women's footballers – three Germans, three Americans, one Brazilian, and one Japanese – have won the award.

Marta Marta may refer to: People * Marta (given name), a feminine given name * Märta, a feminine given name * Marta (surname) * Marta (footballer) (born 1986), Brazilian professional footballer Places * Marta (river), an Italian river that flow ...

, 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 "Mia" Hamm (born March 17, 1972) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player, two-time Women's Football at the Summer Olympics, Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Haile ...

won twice in a row. The oldest winner is

Nadine Angerer Nadine Marejke Angerer (born 10 November 1978) is a German football coach and player who is the former goalkeeping player-coach for Portland Thorns of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Angerer has played for Frauen-Bundesliga clubs Ba ...

, who was 35 when she won in 2013; she is also the only

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

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 association football, football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 Ballon d'Or, 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived ...

to become the

in a six-year partnership with ''

France Football ''France Football'' is a French monthly 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 exclus ...

''. In 2016, FIFA rebranded the award as

. A single article from the Portuguese daily newspaper ''

A Bola ''A Bola'' (; ) is a Portuguese language, Portuguese sports newspaper published in Lisbon. History and profile ''A Bola'' was founded in 1945 by Cândido de Oliveira, Ribeiro dos Reis and Vicente de Melo and was then published twice a week. It ...

'' reporting about the 1992 award mentions the former award winners

Lothar Matthäus Lothar Herbert Matthäus (; born 21 March 1961) is a German association football, football pundit and former professional player and manager. He captained Germany national football team, West Germany to victory in the 1990 FIFA World Cup and was ...

in 1991, but also

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona Franco (30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional association football, football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two ...

in 1990. There is no other evidence of the award being presented by FIFA prior to 1991.

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. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

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