Real Madrid defender Fabio Cannavaro won recognition for his stunning World Cup performances as Italy skipper by winning the prestigious European Footballer of the Year Award (Ballon d'Or) on Monday.
The 33-year-old Neapolitan succeeds Barcelona star Ronaldinho, winner of last year's award, but who placed fourth this time largely as a result of his World Cup performance as Brazil crashed in the quarter-finals to France.
Cannavaro with 173 points took the honor ahead of Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (124) of Italy and Arsenal's French striker Thierry Henry (121).
PHOTO: AP
France's Zinedine Zidane, who retired after reaching the World Cup finals, placed fifth with 71 points.
"I want to thank Real president Ramon Calderon and my teammates from Juve and the national team who had an important part to play in my winning this award," said Cannavaro.
Rare honor
"It has a double importance because it's given to the greatest players and as a defender it's rare to have this honor. The World Cup in Germany was perfect for a defender. I remember in particular the semi-final against Germany," he added.
Cannavaro said that his personal choice of winner would have been Buffon "because he's a friend and a phenomenon," followed by Henry, who was runner-up in 2003, and Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo.
"Gigi [Buffon] is in the goalkeepers category but also apart in that he's in a class of his own," said the Real Madrid defender.
"A player like Thierry Henry has incredible qualities. He's been in the running for so many years. This year people said `that's it, this time he'll have it' but he didn't. I'm sorry but it's not my fault, I'm not the one who votes," he said.
Cannavaro added that his performances with Juventus played a big part in his success.
"Many people analyzed my season with Juve last year for this vote. In that season I played 37 matches and scored four crucial goals."
Stripped
As well as winning the World Cup, Cannavaro won the Serie A with Juventus in 2004/05 and 2005/06 before they were stripped of those titles and demoted to the second division after being found guilty of match fixing.
He is the fifth Italian to win the Ballon D'Or after Omar Sivori (1961), Gianni Rivera (1969), Paolo Rossi (1982) and Roberto Baggio (1993).
The last defender to win the award was Germany's Mathias Sammer in 1996.
Capped 105 times for Italy, Cannavaro becomes the fifth Real Madrid player to win the award after Argentine Alfredo Di Stefano (1957, 1959), Portugal's Luis Figo (2000) and Brazilian Ronaldo (2002).
The 51st Ballon d'Or, organized by French soccer magazine, France Football, was decided after votes from European soccer's leading journalists.
But not everyone though thought the award had gone to the right recipient.
When Raymond Domenech was asked for his opinion on Canal+ television the France manager shrugged and said: "Fabio Cannavaro is a good player ... but he's not the Ballon d'Or -- Thierry Henry was much more decisive throughout the season. I don't understand it."
"For me the true Ballon d'Or is elected on Dec. 18 by FIFA and for me it's evidently Thierry Henry. He's above everyone," he added.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
Batting great Virat Kohli yesterday announced his immediate retirement from Test cricket, just days before India name their squad for a tour to England. Kohli, who scored 9,230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85, posted his decision on Instagram five days after India captain Rohit Sharma called time on his own Test career. Since making his debut in 2011, Kohli struck 30 hundreds and 31 fifties with a highest score of 254 not out, mainly batting at number four in the order. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket,” the
RSS