FILE: Fabio Cannavaro adds World Player of the Year to European title.

Italy's Fabio Cannavaro completed an outstanding year of achievement on Monday (December 18) when he added FIFA's World Player of the Year crown to the European Footballer of the Year award he won in November. Cannavaro, who captained his country to victory in the World Cup final in Berlin in July, beat off competition from retired French great Zinedine Zidane and Brazil's Ronaldinho in a vote by national team coaches and captains. The 33-year-old Real Madrid defender ended Ronaldinho's two-year reign as World Player of the Year after he also succeeded the Barcelona playmaker as European Footballer of the Year. Zidane, who was sent off in the World Cup final and quit soccer after the competition, previously won the FIFA award in 1998, 2000 and 2003. Cannavaro is the first defender to win the FIFA award since its inception in 1991 and only three defensive players have won the European award: Soviet Union goalkeeper Lev Yashin in 1963; West Germany sweeper Franz Beckenbauer (1972, 1976); and Germany libero Matthias Sammer (1996). Like Zidane, Cannavaro has been involved in his fair share of controversy this year, not least when he helped Juventus win a second successive Serie A title only for the club to be stripped of the crown and relegated following a probe into alleged match-fixing. Italy's World Cup success was achieved against the backdrop of that investigation and Cannavaro went into the tournament facing criticism after he defended former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi, who was at the centre of the allegations.

ITN Source | December 20, 2006

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