FIFA World Player of The Year

The FIFA World Player of the Year is an association football award presented to the 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; a women's award was added in 2001. In a voting system based on positional voting, each coach has three votes, worth five points, three points and one point, and the winners are ordered based on total number of points.

During the time that the men's award was presented, European-based Brazilian players dominated that award, winning 8 out of 18 editions of the prize, ahead of the second country France, which won it three times. In terms of individual players who have received the award, Brazil leads with five, followed by Italy and Portugal with two each.^[1][2]

The women's award has had fewer individual winners. So far, only five players – one from each of three different countries, plus two Americans – have won the award. Of these women, only 2011 winner Homare Sawa and 2012 winner Abby Wambach have won only one award.

The award's youngest winner, male or female, was Ronaldo, who won at the age of 20 in 1996. He won it again in 1997 and 2002. Marta is the only player to win it five times in a row; Birgit Prinz won three times in a row, while Ronaldo, Mia Hamm and Ronaldinho won twice in a row. Marta is the only five-time winner, while Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and Prinz have won the award three times. The oldest winner of either sex is Sawa, who was 33 when she won in 2011. The oldest male winner is Fabio Cannavaro, who was also 33 when he won in 2006, but whose birth date is one week after Sawa's. The youngest female winner is Marta, who won in 2006 at age 20, but was seven months older than Ronaldo in 1996.

In 2010, the FIFA World Player of the Year and France Football's Ballon d'Or award were merged and the world's best male player has since been awarded the FIFA Ballon d'Or each year.^[3]

Source: Wikipedia