FIFA World Player of the Year

The FIFA World Player of the Year is an association football award presented to the female player voted as best in the world by coaches and captains of international teams. It began in 1991 as an award for the best men's player in the world, and from 2001 to 2009 both men's and women's awards were presented. As of 2010, the equivalent men's award is the FIFA Ballon d'Or. In a voting system based on positional voting, each coach has three votes, worth five points, three points and one point, and the three finalists are ordered based on total number of points.

During the men's era, European-based Brazilian players dominated the award, winning 8 out of 18 times, compared to three wins – the second most – for French players. In terms of the number of individual players who have received the award from each country, Brazil leads with five, followed by Italy and Portugal with two each.

The award's youngest male winner was Ronaldo, who won at the age of 20 in 1996.^[4] He won it again in 1997 and 2002. Both Ronaldo and Ronaldinho won twice in a row. Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane won the award three times. The oldest winner is Fabio Cannavaro, who was 33 when he won in 2006.

So far, only seven female players – three Germans, two Americans, one Brazilian, and one Japanese – have won the award. Marta has won it five times in a row, Birgit Prinz won three times in a row, and Mia Hamm 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 to win either the women's or men's award. The youngest winner is Marta, who won in 2006 at age 20.

Nomination and selection process

Following criticism from some sections of the media over nominations in previous years, in 2004 FIFA drew up a short list of 35 men and 21 women from which national team managers and, for the first time, team captains and representatives fromFIFPro (the worldwide representative organisation for professional players) could vote.

Winners

List of male winners

#	Player	First place	Second place	Third place
1	Zinedine Zidane	3	1	2
2	Ronaldo	3	1	1
3	Ronaldinho	2	0	1
4	Lionel Messi	1	2	0
5	Cristiano Ronaldo	1	1	1
6	Luís Figo	1	1	0
	Romário	1	1	0
	George Weah	1	1	0
9	Rivaldo	1	0	1
	Roberto Baggio	1	0	1
11	Kaká	1	0	0
	Fabio Cannavaro	1	0	0
	Marco van Basten	1	0	0
	Lothar Matthäus	1	0	0
15	Thierry Henry	0	2	0
	David Beckham	0	2	0
	Hristo Stoichkov	0	2	0
18	Frank Lampard	0	1	0
	Oliver Kahn	0	1	0
	Roberto Carlos	0	1	0
	Paolo Maldini	0	1	0
	Jean-Pierre Papin	0	1	0
23	Dennis Bergkamp	0	0	2
24	Xavi	0	0	1
	Fernando Torres	0	0	1
	Samuel Eto'o	0	0	1
	Andriy Shevchenko	0	0	1
	Raúl	0	0	1
	Gabriel Batistuta	0	0	1
	Davor Šuker	0	0	1
	Alan Shearer	0	0	1
	Jürgen Klinsmann	0	0	1
	Thomas Häßler	0	0	1
	Gary Lineker	0	0	1

Wins by player

Wins by country

Table of winners categorised by the player's nationality (not the nationality of his club).

#	Country	First place	Second place	Third place
1	Brazil	8 (1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005,2007)	3 (1993, 1997, 1998)	3 (2000, 2003,2006)
2	France	3 (1998, 2000, 2003)	4 (1991, 2003, 2004,2006)	2 (1997*, 2002)
3	Portugal	2 (2001, 2008)	2 (2000, 2009)	1 (2007)
4	Italy	2 (1993, 2006)	1 (1995)	1 (1994)
5	Argentina	1 (2009)	2 (2007, 2008)	1 (1999)
6	Germany	1 (1991)	1 (2002)	2 (1992, 1995)
7	Liberia	1 (1995)	1 (1996)	0
8	Netherlands	1 (1992)	0	2 (1993, 1997*)
9	England	0	3 (1999, 2001, 2005)	2 (1991, 1996)
10	Bulgaria	0	2 (1992, 1994)	0
11	Spain	0	0	3 (2001, 2008,2009)
12	Croatia	0	0	1 (1998)
12	Ukraine	0	0	1 (2004)
12	Cameroon	0	0	1 (2005)

* There was a tie for that place

Wins by club

#	Club	First place	Second place	Third place
1	Barcelona	7 (1994, 1996*, 1997**, 1999, 2004,2005, 2009)	6 (1992, 1993*, 1994, 2000**,2007, 2008)	4 (2000, 2005, 2006,2009)
2	Real Madrid	4 (2001, 2002*, 2003, 2006*)	4 (1997, 2000*, 2006***, 2009*)	3 (1998, 2001, 2003)
3	Juventus	4 (1993, 1998, 2000, 2006**)	0	2 (1994, 1997)
4	Milan	3 (1992, 1995*, 2007)	2 (1995, 1996)	1 (2004)
5	Internazionale	3 (1991, 1997*, 2002**)	1 (1998)	1 (1993*)
6	Manchester United	1 (2008)	3 (1999, 2001, 2009**)	1 (2007)
7	PSV Eindhoven	1 (1996**)	1 (1993**)	0
8	Paris Saint-Germain	1 (1995**)	0	0
9	Arsenal	0	2 (2003, 2004)	1 (1997)
10	Bayern Munich	0	1 (2002)	1 (1995*)
11	Marseille	0	1 (1991)	0
11	Chelsea	0	1 (2005)	0
13	Tottenham Hotspur	0	0	2 (1991, 1995**)
14	Roma	0	0	1 (1992)
14	Ajax	0	0	1 (1993**)
14	Blackburn Rovers	0	0	1 (1996**)
14	Newcastle United	0	0	1 (1996*)
14	Fiorentina	0	0	1 (1999)
14	Liverpool	0	0	1 (2008)

*Player was a member of the club for the second half of the calendar year (The first part of a new season - August to December)
**Player was a member of the club for the first half of the calendar year (The second part of a finished season - January to May)
***Player retired halfway through the calendar year so was a member of the club only for the first half of the calendar year (The second part of a finished season - January to May)

List of female winners

Marta, the 2006–10 winner

Nadine Angerer, 2013 win­ner and first goalkeeper to win

Year	1st	2nd	3rd
2001	Mia Hamm (Washington Freedom)	Tiffeny Milbrett (New York Power)	Sun Wen (Atlanta Beat)
2002	Mia Hamm (Washington Freedom)	Birgit Prinz (1. FFC Frankfurt)	Sun Wen (Atlanta Beat)
2003	Birgit Prinz (1. FFC Frankfurt)	Mia Hamm(Washington Freedom)	Hanna Ljungberg(Umeå IK)
2004	Birgit Prinz (1. FFC Frankfurt)	Mia Hamm(Washington Freedom)	Marta (Umeå IK)
2005	Birgit Prinz (1. FFC Frankfurt)	Marta (Umeå IK)	Shannon Boxx
2006	Marta (Umeå IK)	Kristine Lilly (KIF Örebro DFF)	Renate Lingor (1. FFC Frankfurt)
2007	Marta (Umeå IK)	Birgit Prinz (1. FFC Frankfurt)	Cristiane (VfL Wolfsburg)
2008	Marta (Umeå IK)	Birgit Prinz (1. FFC Frankfurt)	Cristiane (Linköping,Corinthians)
2009	Marta (Los Angeles Sol,Santos)	Birgit Prinz (1. FFC Frankfurt)	Kelly Smith (Boston Breakers)
2010	Marta (FC Gold Pride,Santos)	Birgit Prinz (1. FFC Frankfurt)	Fatmire Bajramaj(Turbine Potsdam)
2011	Homare Sawa (INAC Kobe Leonessa)	Marta (Western New York Flash)	Abby Wambach(magicJack)
2012	Abby Wambach	Marta (Tyresö FF)	Alex Morgan (Seattle Sounders Women)
2013	Nadine Angerer (1. FFC Frankfurt, Brisbane Roar)	Abby Wambach(Western New York Flash)	Marta (Tyresö FF)
2014	Nadine Keßler (VfL Wolfsburg)	Marta (Tyresö FF, FC Rosengård)	Abby Wambach(Western New York Flash)

Wins by player

#	Player	First place	Second place	Third place
1	Marta	5	4	2
2	Birgit Prinz	3	5	0
3	Mia Hamm	2	2	0
4	Abby Wambach	1	1	2
5	Homare Sawa	1	0	0
	Nadine Angerer	1	0	0
	Nadine Keßler	1	0	0
7	Tiffeny Milbrett	0	1	0
	Kristine Lilly	0	1	0
9	Sun Wen	0	0	2
	Cristiane	0	0	2
11	Kelly Smith	0	0	1
	Shannon Boxx	0	0	1
	Renate Lingor	0	0	1
	Hanna Ljungberg	0	0	1
	Fatmire Bajramaj	0	0	1
	Alex Morgan	0	0	1

Wins by country

Table of winners categorised by the player's nationality (not the nationality of her club).

#	Country	First place	Second place	Third place
1	Germany	5 (2003, 2004, 2005, 2013, 2014)	5 (2002, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)	2 (2006, 2010)
2	Brazil	5 (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)	4 (2005, 2011, 2012, 2014)	4 (2004, 2007, 2008, 2013)
3	United States	3 (2001, 2002, 2012)	5 (2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2013)	3 (2005, 2011, 2012, 2014)
4	Japan	1 (2011)	0	0
5	China PR	0	0	2 (2001, 2002)
6	England	0	0	1 (2009)
7	Sweden	0	0	1 (2003)

Wins by club

#	Club	First place	Second place	Third place
1	1. FFC Frankfurt	4 (2003, 2004, 2005, 2013)	5 (2002, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)	1 (2006)
2	Umeå IK	3 (2006, 2007, 2008)	1 (2005)	2 (2003, 2004)
3	Washington Freedom	2 (2001, 2002)	2 (2003, 2004)	0
4	Santos	2 (2009, 2010)	0	0
5	VfL Wolfsburg	1 (2014)	0	1 (2007)
6	INAC Kobe Leonessa	1 (2011)	0	0
	FC Gold Pride	1 (2010)	0	0
	Los Angeles Sol	1 (2009)	0	0
	Brisbane Roar	1 (2013)	0	0
10	Tyresö FF	0	2 (2012, 2014)	1 (2013)
	Western New York Flash	0	2 (2011, 2013)	1 (2014)
12	FC Rosengård	0	1 (2014)	0
	KIF Örebro DFF	0	1 (2006)	0
	New York Power	0	1 (2001)	0
15	Atlanta Beat	0	0	2 (2001, 2002)
16	Seattle Sounders Women	0	0	1 (2012)
	magicJack	0	0	1 (2011)
	Turbine Potsdam	0	0	1 (2010)
	Boston Breakers	0	0	1 (2009)
	Linköping	0	0	1 (2008)
	Corinthians	0	0	1 (2008)
	Unattached	1 (2012)	0	1 (2005)