FRANCE: SOCCER/ FOOTBALL - Juventus football club captain Alessandro Del Piero wins 2007 Golden Foot award in Monaco

Juventus football club captain wins the 2007 Golden Foot award in Monaco, awarded to players over 29 years old who excel both as players and team members. Italian international Alessandro Del Piero won the 2007 Golden Foot award on Monday (September 3), the prestigious international career prize awarded by a jury and fans voting on the www.goldenfoot.com web site. Famous football players such as Mario Kempes, Paolo Rossi, Romario and Hristo Stoitchkov were all welcomed by Prince Albert Rainier of Monaco, and later left their their footprints in the concrete to be displayed later in a walk of fame. The award is only for those players aged over 29 years old, who have impressed over their careers with results, determination and a strong following among fans. The winner is then chosen from a list of ten nominees decided by a jury consisting of the Golden Foot media partners representatives and fans from all over the world who give their preferential vote through the official site. Juventus captain Del Piero took the lead as the poll opened and, even though his first position was seriously threatened by Roberto Carlos, he remained the leader until the end. The "Bianconeri" number 10, who won the 2006 World Cup with Italy, scored 30,199 votes. Roberto Carlos, the Brazilian player of Fenerbahce SK, finished second (with 29,174 votes). Carlos received a boost from newly-won fans from Turkey. David Beckham was third with 24,121 votes, followed by AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini who collected 20,700 votes. Fabio Cannavaro, Cafu, Ryan Giggs and Raul were the others in the list. This is the fifth edition of the award, and the previous winners are Roberto Baggio, Pavel Nedved, Andriy Shevchenko and Ronaldo, making Serie A's domination complete.

ITN Source | September 5, 2007

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