World Soccer Presents issue 8

Presents

PLAYER YEAR OF THE

A HISTORY OF WORLD SOCCER’S AWARD WINNERS

SPECIAL COLLECTORS EDITION

PRESENTS P L A Y E R O F T H E Y E A R

From the editor

T

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

o mark the 40th anniversary of the World Soccer awards, this special edition bookazine takes you on a journey through the magazine’s World Player of the Year prize; an accolade passed on each year by indisputable football legends such as Platini, Maradona, Ronaldo, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.

Forty years ago, Italy’s Paolo Rossi set the wheels in motion. His World Cupwinning exploits, with six goals at Spain ’82, saw him crowned the inaugural World Soccer World Player of the Year. The modus operandi in how the winner was picked each year since evolved: some years readers selected the best player, in others a panel of journalists and experts bestowed the prestigious prize upon the winner. A combination of both has even been used. But whichever method has been adopted, the aim and result remain the same – to single out the world’s outstanding player.

It was a necessary accolade. As esteemed World Soccer writer Keir Radnedge noted back in 2020: “In 1982, France Football had been organising its prestigious European Footballer of the Year award for 27 years. A South American equivalent had been created in Uruguay, limited to locally-based stars, but nobody organised a world player award. World Soccer filled that gap.”

There has been a clarity with World Soccer’s World Player prize, too. As Radnedge further observed: “FIFA created its own award [in 1991] and France Football, irked by the competition, scrapped its European border [in 1995]. In 2010 the pair even added to the growing confusion by merging their awards, only to split apart again in 2015. No such mix and muddle here.”

No mix and muddle with World Soccer’s winners either. Every year the magazine has crowned a worthy winner, even in 2020 when the Ballon d’Or cancelled its awards – an unfair snub, according to many observers, to Robert Lewandowski.

But that doesn’t mean it has been without its controversy.

Along the way, the awards have always generated debate. The stronghold Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi had on the prize in the 2010s left little room for others to grab the glory but, in the 2000s, nine different players won the top gong; and to the consternation of many English Premier League supporters, Arsenal’s Thierry Henry – who was at the peak of his powers, dominating the English game during that era – was not one of them.

It is often a matter of timing. Usually in a World Cup year, an outstanding player from the tournament (namely a World Cup winner) claims the prize. Other great players, including the likes of Neymar, Andres Iniesta, Dennis Bergkamp and Henry often missed out simply due to the fact that another player was playing football from another planet – i.e. the Ronaldos, Messi and Ronaldinho.

However each award was won, you will, through this bookazine, be able to trace every winner’s outstanding year, read exclusive interviews and articles, and re-visit the top ten players from every single poll. In addition, all of the winning Teams and Managers of the Year are chronicled too, making this the ultimate companion to your World Soccer collection.

Stephen Fishlock, World Soccer Group Editor

“Great players often missed out simply due to the fact that another player was playing football from another planet”

Contents 8

60

68 76

30

1980s

Paolo Rossi 1982 Zico 1983 Michel Platini 1984 Michel Platini 1985 Platini: My Way Diego Maradona 1986 Maradona: World Cup winner Ruud Gullit 1987 Marco van Basten 1988 Ruud Gullit 1989

1990s

Lothar Matthaus 1990 Matthaus: Armchair rider Jean-Pierre Papin 1991 Marco van Basten 1992 Van Basten can’t stop winning

4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32

Roberto Baggio 1993 Paolo Maldini 1994 Gianluca Vialli 1995 Ronaldo 1996 Ronaldo 1997 Ronaldo: The world at his feet Zinedine Zidane 1998 Rivaldo 1999 Rivaldo takes on the world

2000s

Luis Figo 2000 Michael Owen 2001 Ronaldo 2002 Pavel Nedved 2003 Ronaldinho 2004 Ronaldinho 2005 Fabio Cannavaro 2006 Kaka 2007

34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66

Cristiano Ronaldo 2008 Lionel Messi 2009 Player of the Decade

68 70 72

2010s

Xavi 2010 Lionel Messi 2011 Lionel Messi 2012 Cristiano Ronaldo 2013 Cristiano Ronaldo 2014 Lionel Messi 2015 Cristiano Ronaldo 2016 Cristiano Ronaldo 2017 Luka Modric 2018 Lionel Messi 2019

74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92

2020s

Robert Lewandowski 2020 Robert Lewandowski 2021

94 96

ESTABLISHED 1960 WORLD SOCCER Kelsey Media, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL SUBSCRIPTIONS shop.kelsey.co.uk/subscription/WSC / +44 (0)1959 543 747 / shop.kelsey.co.uk/subscription/WSP GROUP EDITOR Stephen Fishlock ASSISTANT EDITORS Jamie Evans & Jared Tinslay DESIGN Sean Phillips, atg-media.com PICTURES Getty Images CHIEF EXECUTIVE Steve Wright CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Phil Weeden MANAGING DIRECTOR Kevin McCormick PUBLISHER Steve Brown PRINT PRODUCTION Georgina Harris (manager), Kelly Orriss & Hayley Brown (controllers) ADVERTISING Talk Media Sales / +44 (0)1732 445325 / david.lerpiniere@talkmediasales.co.uk PRINTING Pensord Press Ltd. DISTRIBUTION Marketforce (Great Britain) 0330 390 6555; Distribution in Northern Ireland and the Republic Of Ireland Newspread +353 23 886 3850 PUBLISHED BY Kelsey Media 2022 © all right reserved. Kelsey Media is a trading name of Kelsey Publishing Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden except with permission in writing from the publishers

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Paolo ROSSI

Inaugural winner…

Rossi on the cover

A fairy tale come to life

P

aolo Rossi is World Soccer’ Soccer’s first-ever World Footballer of the Year – that is the verdict of a poll conducted among contributors and readers, the results of which were, predictably, heavily influenced by events at the World Cup finals in Spain.

But while world champions Italy provided a top-scoring four players in the top ten, note also the strong representation of Brazil – with Falcao, Zico and Socrates finishing third, fourth and fifth respectively. There is no doubt that football lovers the world over were captivated by the brilliant Brazilians at the World Cup, and that is duly reflected by the appearance of Brazil at the head of the World Team of the Year poll.

Italy had to be satisfied with second place here, but a more than adequate compensation was the election of Enzo Bearzot as World Manager of the Year.

Football fans around the world have studied the ups and downs of Bearzot’s career since he became sole national manager. He’s worked hard to bring Italy out of the stagnating defensive patterns of calcio to a new pinnacle in the world game and when Rossi and Co. collected the World Cup in Madrid, it was only right that the man they should instantly seek out to raise on their shoulders was Bearzot.

Each of the separate categories produced points to note.

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ICONIC TEAMS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Azzurri goal king…Rossi

1982

1982 PAOLO ROSSI

Top 10 Players of 1982 Player 1) Paolo Rossi 2) Karl-Heinz Rumenigge 3) Falcao 4) Zico 5) Socrates 6) Dino Zoff 7) Bruno Conti 8=) Johan Cruyff 8=) Gaetano Scirea 10) Zbigniew Boniek

Club Juventus Bayern Munich Roma Flamengo Corinthians Juventus Roma Ajax Juventus Widzew Lodz/Juventus

Country % of vote Italy 23 West Germany 14 Brazil 12 Brazil 10 Brazil 9 Italy 6 Italy 4 Netherlands 3 Italy 3 Poland 2

World champions…lifting the trophy

The players’ poll left Diego Maradona – freely recognised as the world’s most talented attacker – among the also-rans.

His campaign in the World Cup was by and large disappointing and ended in the ignominy of dismissal from the pitch for an awful foul on Brazil’s Batista. Then again, Maradona made a slow start with Barcelona and that brilliant goal against Red Star Belgrade in the Cup Winners’ Cup in Yugoslavia came too late to have much influence on the voting.

The story of eventual winner Paolo Rossi comes straight out of football fiction. If you read it in a novel you’d throw it away as absurdly fanciful.

Life doesn’t work that way.

Banned for two years in the Italian match-fixing scandal, Rossi returned to action at the tail end of the league

Slim, quick and skilful, Rossi was hard to pin down in the penalty box. He was brave as well, unafraid to go in where the boots were flying. Scoring 21 goals he lifted Vicenza into the first division where a hat-trick against Roma earned an international debut against Belgium in December 1977.

The end of that season saw Rossi crowned as the league’s top scorer with 24 goals and his World Cup explosion in the finals in Argentina. Juventus now wanted him back. But Vicenza president Giussi Farina raised enough cash to outbid them for the “other” half of Rossi and he became their player entirely.

To pay the £1.75 million fee, however, Vicenza had to sell many other players.

Despite Rossi’s continued flow of goals Vicenza were relegated the next year

Rossi…starring in the World Cup final v West Germany

Other World Soccer Award winners 1982 Samba superstars…Brazil pipped Italy in the vote by four per cent

The story of eventual winner Paolo Rossi comes straight out of football fiction. If you read it in a novel you’d throw it away as absurdly fanciful season, almost immediately became league champion with Juventus, then picked up the pieces of his international career to such effect that he finished as top scorer in the World Cup finals… and was a goalscoring member of the Italian side who beat West Germany in the final itself in Madrid.

That Rossi plays football at all is remarkable.

Born in Prato on September 23, 1956, he was picked up in his late teens

by Juventus but a series of cartilage operations meant that his future as an inside or outside-right wasn’t rated very highly by the Turin giants.

They sent him on loan first to Como, then to second-tier Lanerossi Vicenza.

Here Rossi met a man who recognised his potential. Coach Gian Battista Fabbri switched him to centre-forward with immediate success.

and Rossi was once more put out on loan; this time to first division Perugia at a cost of £600,000 for one season. He hadn’t been there a season, however, before the betting scandal emerged.

Rossi forever protested his innocence.

That whatever was arranged about the 2-2 draw with Avellino, he knew nothing of it. But the league authorities banned him for three years, reduced on appeal to two.

During that time Rossi trained alone, until Juventus came along to finally buy back the boy that they had cast aside all those years before. He played the last three games of the 1981-82 season and then scored six goals in Spain – including a hat-trick against Brazil and the opening goal in the World Cup final – to complete one of football’s most staggering fairy tales.

Philip Rising & Keir Radnedge

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Brazil Coaching masterclass…

Bearzot dominated with almost half the vote

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Enzo Bearzot, Italy

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

ZICO

1983

Cover sttar…Zico a appeared on a unique World Soccer cover

Rags to riches: a superstar of two continents

Z

ico, the Brazilian superstar who has set Italian football alight, is the 1983 World Footballer of the Year.

Readers and contributors to World Soccer, the game’s only publication specialising in the international field, have voted the Udinese superstar into top spot.

He was run closely in the voting by Frenchman Michel Platini. And, for a second successive year, Roma’s Falcao finished third.

Fascinating...that a country such as Italy whose football has such an infamous reputation for sterile, defensive play, should be home for all the top three. But it can also be regarded as significant that all three players are imports – not homegrown stars.

The World Player of the Year award thus stays in Italy. Last year the winner was Juventus’ World Cup-winning striker, Paolo Rossi.

Zico’s success over Platini is as much recognition for his example over the years as for his achievements this

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Graceful…Zico skipping past a Spanish tackle

1983 ZICO past 12 months. Flamengo, his Rio club, had been going through a poor patch when he left for Italy – and Udinese are hardly the most fashionable of sides.

Nevertheless, Zico, his wife Sandra and their family, have settled very happily and while he has refused to be intimidated by brutal defenders, Zico has established himself not only as an all-round inspiration but as league-leading scorer with eight goals.

Platini appeared to have a great claim – and that will almost certainly be rewarded with the European Footballer of the Year prize awarded each year by the Paris magazine, France Football.

Platini, in his first season with Juventus, not only finished as Italian league top scorer but provided the vital goals and guidance which took them to the Champions’ Cup final in Athens.

On the night, however, they were out-thought by a Hamburg side whose brilliance that evening did more than anything to earn them the Team of the Year title, while Denmark’s Sepp Piontek won our Manager of the Year award.

could buy up all those streets where he once kicked his rag football. Or a popcorn factory. His ability has turned him into a football millionaire, a superstar in Brazil – more popular even than Eder, Socrates, Falcao or former Flamengo team-mate Junior – and now in Italy as well.

Aged 30 and with 78 appearances for the full Brazil national team to his credit, Zico comes from a football family.

His three elder brothers all played in the Rio league and with such a background Flamengo didn’t need asking twice when Zico requested a trial as a 15-year-old. But the youth coaches had their doubts. Skilful, certainly.

But he looked undernourished.

He was fragile, brittle-looking.

Thus Zico was sent to the club’s medical centre. The prescription was obvious: anabolic preparations to help build his muscles and plenty of meat – more than Zico had ever known in his life.

A year later he was a different player.

People higher up the club took notice.

A year later the veteran Paraguayan

His ability has turned him into a football millionaire, a superstar in Brazil – more popular even than Eder, Socrates, Falcao or former Flamengo team-mate Junior But it is the crowning of Zico which takes pride of place.

As a kid he carried his ball of rags from one street to another, looking for somewhere to kick it around where the neighbours wouldn’t complain and the police wouldn’t chase him away.

As a youth he walked the Rio beaches selling popcorn, hoping again that he could stay out of trouble.

But now Arthur Antunes Coimbra

Popular…Zico is national hero

coach, Fleitas Solich, called him up for the first team. He played 15 games and scored but twice. He was still slightly out of his depth. But not for long.

Back in the youth team he proved his potential, netting 20 goals in 22 matches, a prelude to his first representative call, playing for Brazil in the Olympic qualifiers.

Now his career took off. He became a regular with Flamengo and then with Brazil – hitting a superb debut winner with a free-kick against Uruguay.

Clubs from Spain and Italy dived in with offers and inquiries. But, though he scored four times in an 8-0 demolition of Bolivia in the 1978 World Cup qualifiers, he let himself down in the finals in Argentina.

Thus he rejected offers from Milan and Napoli, inspired Flamengo’s 1981 World Club Cup victory over Liverpool in Tokyo, and starred in Brazil’s World Cup bid the following summer.

There just wasn’t money enough in Brazil to keep him. So, last summer, unfashionable Udinese stole a march on Juventus, Internazionale and the other Italian giants and snapped up Zico for £2 million. It has proven an inspired signing.

Philip Rising & Keir Radnedge

Top 10 Players of 1983 Player 1) Zico 2) Michel Platini 3) Falcao 4) Diego Maradona 5) Karl-Heinz Rumenigge 6=) Kenny Dalglish 6=) Felix Magath 6=) Bryan Robson 9=) Charlie Nicholas 9=) Erwin Vandenbergh

Club Udinese Juventus Roma Barcelona Bayern Munich Liverpool Hamburg Manchester United Arsenal Anderlecht

Country % of vote Brazil 28 France 24 Brazil 18 Argentina 6 West Germany 4 Scotland 3 West Germany 3 England 3 Scotland 2 Belgium 2

Selecao star…Zico tops the vote

Other World Soccer Award winners 1983

European champions…

Hamburg won 29 per cent of the vote

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Hamburg

Winner…coach Piontek edged out rival Ernst Happel by just two per cent

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Sepp Piontek, Denmark

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Michel PLATINI

1984 top three…Michel Platini, Ian Rush and Zico

Platini is the tops

I

t has been an absolutely fantastic year for France – that is the overwhelming message of readers and contributors from all around the world who voted in World Soccer’s annual awards poll.

Michel Platini won the World Footballer of the Year accolade with a record advantage over runner-up Ian Rush; France was unrivalled in the voting as World Team of the Year for their brilliant victory in the European Championship (reinforced by their Olympic success); and Michel Hidalgo, the French boss, was voted Manager of the Year.

Platini, the modest millionaire of Juventus and France, can hardly pretend surprise any more at the way he has swept every award this past year.

World Soccer’s World Player of the Year crown is the latest in an ever-lengthening collection and no doubt there are more to come in the next few weeks.

His achievements last summer set him up in a class of his own. He took Juventus to victory in the European Cup Winners’ Cup and Italian championship, and then scored the goals and provided the inspiration with which France carried off the European Championship.

Armed with this redoubtable background, Platini is now poised

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

to launch himself towards the one major club level title which neither he nor Juventus have ever won: the European Champions’ Cup. There is perhaps no club in Europe for whom victory in the Champions’ Cup would mean so much. The fact that they have won the Italian league on a record 21 occasions and the cup a record seven times, the Cup Winners’ Cup and the UEFA Cup...all count for nothing beside the regret that they have never been Europe’s No.1.

“That,” says president Giampiero Boniperti, “is the biggest prize of all.

Milan have won it. Internazionale have won it. But Juventus have not. That is our goal this season.”

Poland star Zbigniew Boniek even went as far as to say: “If we finish one place above the relegation zone in the league, but win the European Cup then it will have been a great season.”

The man who carries most responsibility is Platini. He has been playing in Italy for two seasons now and both times he has been the league’s leading scorer. In 1983 he also inspired Juventus to reach the Champions’’ Cup final – where they lost surprisingly 1-0 to Hamburg – and last season of course he overthrew Diego Maradona as the world’s top player with his displays for France.

Platini says he will quit the European scene for some easy money in the United States after the next World Cup in 1986. His ambition to win the European Cup is a great one and he has admitted that this season could prove his best – and perhaps last – chance.

Platini knows all about the physical danger he runs against ruthless opponents who will do almost anything to try to stop him. Born in June 1955, he had barely made his first-team debut with Nancy-Lorraine at the age of 17 when he was hacked down from behind. The outcome: Platini was carried off with a broken leg.

1984

Hat-trick hero…Platini stars against Belgium at Euro ’84

1984 MICHEL PLATINI Most other young players would never recover. They might return to the first team, but their confidence would be shattered. Yet Platini returned with his attitude amended only by a fierce determination to make up for lost time.

He has done so. But along the way he has also had to suffer a cartilage operation and a broken ankle.

On March 27, 1976, Platini was chosen for the first time for the French national team by Michel Hidalgo. It was Platini’s big test – and also an important selection for Hidalgo, for whom this game against Czechoslovakia was his first as manager of France.

Early in the game France were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the Czech penalty area. French skipper Henri Michel placed the ball and stepped back, ready for a crack at goal. Suddenly Platini trotted across.

“Leave it,” he told Michel. “I’m going to put this in the net.”

Skipper Michel stepped back and waited. Platini took that familiar run-up and clipped a curling free kick round the edge of the wall and past goalkeeper Ivo Viktor. From that day on goalkeepers

That Platini would finish up playing in Italy was rarely in doubt. His father, Aldo Platini – who had been his youth coach at Nancy-Lorraine – still had distant relatives in Italy. The question was: When?

After appearing in Argentina in the 1978 World Cup finals, Platini was transferred from little Nancy to the greatest French club of the 1970s, Saint-Etienne. In the past 18 months that once-proud club have been humbled by an under-the-counter payments scandal.

But in 1978 Les Verts were helping to restore French pride in their football.

Platini immediately took over as midfield creator and top scorer. In 1981 they were within one match of the league and cup double. The championship they won easily, losing only four games in 38. But in the cup final Platini and Co. – the hot favourites – lost surprisingly 2-1 to Bastia.

One more year and Juventus arrived on the scene. Italian rivals Internazionale had earlier had an option on Platini, but that now lapsed. Before Platini went off to play for France in the World Cup finals he had all but signed up with Juventus.

Michel Platini’s achievements last summer set him up in a class of his own have lived in fear of Platini’s free-kicks – even top men such as Italy’s Dino Zoff, England’s Peter Shilton and Spain’s Luis Arconada, have been beaten by them.

At first French fans were not totally agreed on Platini’s talents. Many thought France played better without him.

Hidalgo didn’t listen. He said: “The problem is that for some reason many fans won’t believe their own eyes. If Platini played abroad, in Italy or Spain, they would accept his ability. It’s because he has stayed in France that too many people take him for granted.”

European champion…

Platini

After the finals, in which Platini was the brightest star of a brilliant French team, he completed the deal with Juventus – who sold off Liam Brady to Sampdoria to make way for the Frenchman.

The Juventus forward-line looked unstoppable: Italy’s Roberto Bettega, Marco Tardelli and Paolo Rossi, then Platini, then Polish star Boniek. In the Italian league they were back as champions in 1983, beat Verona 3-2 on aggregate in the cup final, and Platini was league top scorer with 18 goals.

They also reached the Champions’ Cup final – beating Aston Villa on the way – only to lose to Hamburg Last season Platini announced: “I’m going to concentrate more this time on making goals for my team-mates than scoring myself.”

Yet he was once again Italian football’s goal king, with 20, before hitting nine goals in five matches in the European Championship – including hat-tricks against Belgium and Yugoslavia, and the last-gasp semi-final winner against Portugal.

Platini said recently: “We can win the European Cup. But the fans must not expect miracles.”

After his exploits this far in a glittering career, that is just what they do expect from the World Footballer of the Year.

Keir Radnedge

Top 10 Players of 1984 Player 1) Michel Platini 2) Ian Rush 3) Zico 4) Fernando Chalana 5) Jean Tigana 6) Morten Olsen 7) Renato 8) Paolo Rossi 9) Graeme Souness 10) Bryan Robson

Club Juventus Liverpool Udinese Benfica/Bordeaux Bordeaux Anderlecht Gremio Juventus Liverpool/Sampdoria Manchester United

Country France Wales Brazil Portugal France Denmark Brazil Italy Scotland England

% of vote

54 9 7 5 2.7 2.3 1.7 1.5 1.3 1.1

In a class of his own…Michel Platini

Other World Soccer Award winners 1984

Runaway winners…France polled 45 per cent of the vote

TEAM OF THE YEAR: France

Manager gong…Hidalgo received double the votes of second-placed Joe Fagan

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Michel Hidalgo, France

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Michel PLATINI

1985

Exclusive…the December1985 December 1985 edition included an interview with Platini

The man for the big occasion

J

uventus star Michel Platini, Barcelona boss Terry Venables and Everton’s league and European Cup Winners’ Cup champions take the honours in World Soccer’ss 1985 world awards poll.

Platini, captain of France, is the first player to win the World Footballer of the Year title twice – having won in 1984 – thanks to the votes of readers of World Soccer and of the Dutch magazine International Voetball Nieuws.

Venables earned his honour – the first British individual to finish on top of one of the award categories – thanks to his brilliant takeover at Barcelona which resulted in the club’s first Spanish league title for 11 years, while Everton were runaway winners in the Team category.

But it is the Player vote that steals the headlines. When the last votes were counted and polling had finished, Platini was assured of retaining his World Player of the Year title.

And then, the very next day, the captain of France and inspiration of Juventus – both European champions in their own spheres – strolled out against Yugoslavia to demonstrate just why he is the No.1.

No player had previously won the award twice, let alone twice in a row, since its inception in 1982. But if Platini maintains his present high standards

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Juventus talisman… in action v Roma

1985 MICHEL PLATINI he will take a great deal of dislodging.

Particularly as I believe he has already half decided to delay his retirement and stay a further two years with Juve when his contract expires at this season’s end.

Platini is gold, right now. A few years ago it was frequently suggested that for all his brilliance, his imagination and his goals, he succumbed to pressure on the biggest occasions.

He was in turns brilliant and infuriating in the 1978 World Cup finals in Argentina; in Spain he was handicapped by a leg injury; a year later he suffered a grey day as Juventus were surprisingly beaten 1-0 by Hamburg in the final of the Champions’ Cup in Athens.

That defeat, did we but know it at the time, was the turning point. From that moment Platini’s career has soared to new heights. Only Gunnar Nordahl in the far less restricted days of the early 1950s had previously taken the Italian scoring title in three successive seasons.

Such success was “merely” personal.

On its own it would justify a high rating for Platini in the international circus. But his all-round inspiration at team level lifted Juventus to the Italian championship in 1984, the Cup Winners’ Cup that same

Platini scored a vital goal in that same net to the left of the official main stand.

An omen it appeared when France duly kicked off against Yugoslavia in that same direction. France had to win to be sure of qualifying, Yugoslavia had to win to stand any chance of qualifying. A draw would eliminate Yugoslavia and leave the French hoping East Germany did not claim a three-goal win against relaxing group winners Bulgaria that same evening.

The match was the event for the French nation that weekend. And the pressure was quickly relieved by none other than Platini himself. Belgian referee Alex Ponnet awarded the French two freekicks progressively closer to the edge of the Yugoslav penalty box inside the first two minutes. Platini elected to take the second himself and curled the ball past a flat-footed Ranko Stojic into the net.

Midway through the second half Platini struck again. This time Jose Toure nodded down an Alain Giresse free-kick on the right-hand touchline and Platini, striding at right angles to goal across the face of the penalty box, struck a grass-shearing left-foot shot inside Stojic’s left-hand post.

France were into the World Cup finals again; most decisively put there by Michel

No player had previously won the award twice, let alone twice in a row, since its inception in 1982 year and then the Champions’ Cup last season in such desperate circumstances (Platini scored the decisive penalty).

This was not all. Platini’s football world transcends the club game just as his private life takes in a complex daily schedule including television and modelling assignments. Thus he scored two hat-tricks in leading France to the 1984 European Championship - under the most intense of pressure in front of his own French fans – and has now led them back to the World Cup finals.

In 1977 and again in 1981 France had come to their last qualifying match in the Parc des Princes needing a win to assure their place in the finals. Each time

Heysel disaster…Platini’s European Cup victory in Brussels was overshadowed

Platini, the “Man for the Big Occasion”.

The match produced other talking points: some fine football from both teams, not least the gutsy and skilful Yugoslavs, stylishly led from midfield

by Hajduk Split’s stormy petrel, Blaz Sliskovic; some typical bursts of invention from the four-man French midfield where the fast-progressing Luis Fernandez was dynamism personified; on the negative side the capacity 54,000 crowd saw further evidence of a crisis in attack, with Dominique Rocheteau slowed to passenger pace and Toure manifestly unhappy up front; also the late red cards for Ljubomir Radanovic (just) and Yvon Le Roux (harsh); and an appalling refereeing display by the once-reliable Ponnet.

But, at the end of the night, one image remained: that of Platini in triumph running to the crowd to celebrate. Later Platini and his entourage celebrated more selectively at La Coupole in Montparnasse, where once Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway drank all-comers under the tables.

To pursue the literary allusions: after this success such a night must have been tender indeed before Platini’s thoughts turn to next year’s dangerous summer in Mexico.

Keir Radnedge

Top 10 Players of 1985 Player 1) Michel Platini 2) Preben Elkjaer 3) Diego Maradona 4) Peter Reid 5) Bernd Schuster 6) Rudi Voller 7) Neville Southall 8) Hans-Peter Briegel 9) Karl-Heinz Rummenigge 10) Andy Gray

Club Juventus Verona Napoli Everton Barcelona Werder Bremen Everton Verona Internazionale Everton/Aston Villa

Country % of vote France 20.6 Denmark 11.2 Argentina 7 England 6.7 West Germany 5.9 West Germany 4.8 Wales 3.9 West Germany 3.8 West Germany 3.2 Scotland 2.9

Double winner…it was Platini’s second World Player award in a row

Other World Soccer Award winners 1985 Toffees hero…Peter Reid

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Everton Close vote…

Venables polled1.2 per cent more than Everton’s Howard Kendall

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Terry Venables, Barcelona

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

11

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR No achievement appears beyond Michel Platini at the moment – not evenJohan Cruyff’s triple crown as European Footballer of the Year.

As the awards continue to pile upon the Frenchman, so this next award can be his too; he has topped the poll in the last two years organised by the Paris magazine France Football.

But there is much more to Platini than a pot-hunter. Many experts rank him above the 1950s star Raymond Kopa as the best player ever produced by France. His achievements on the pitch speak for themselves, while his vision as a midfield general, dribbling and finishing have made him an outstanding figure in world football.

Diego Maradona’s technique may be even more magical. But in terms of imaginative achievement the Argentine cannot compare.

Joeuf, where Platini was born, is a small mining town in the historical province of Lorraine in eastern France. His grandparents were Italian, his father Aldo a teacher of mathematics who was obsessed with football and coached a local team.

Aldo never made the grade beyond amateur, but he quickly recognised his young son’s talent.

When did you realise you had a special talent for football?

“I obtained my first player’s licence – which is the system we have in France – when I was ten years old. There’s nothing unusual in that. It happens to be the age at which most boys join an organised club. Then, when I was 17 four professional clubs were on the doorstep wanting me to join them. It was only then that I realised I might have what it takes to make a career in the game. No more than that.

Whether I have any particular talent which is out of the ordinary is not for me to judge. If coaches and journalists think that, I am very flattered but I don’t go around claiming that on my own behalf.”

So which club did you join?

“It wasn’t a difficult choice – Nancy-Lorraine.

I agreed to join them in 1972. But I knew all about the club. After all, my father was a coach there already and both my parents ran the club offices. So I grew up feeling a part of the club and to play for them was just a natural step.”

My way…

withJuventus and France Interview: Keir Radnedge & Arthur Rotmil

1985 MICHEL PLATINI Was it hard to keep your mind on school?

“Well, yes. I could have gone on with my studies but trying to find a balance between football and schoolwork was very difficult, especially when I was given the opportunity to play the game at the very highest level. So, a choice had to be made at some stage and I chose the youth-team centre rather than the classroom.”

And so Platini went on improving his skills. In March 1976 he was called up to the full national side against Czechoslovakia. And he celebrated his debut by scoring with one of those curling banana free-kicks which were to become his trademark. France’s new manager for that game was Michel Hidalgo who later, with Platini, led France to European glory. Platini then shared a room with the veteran international Henri Michel who is currently the French team chief.

Further international selections followed, so that in this important phase of his career Platini represented his country at youth, U21, senior level, for the French army team and also the amateurs who qualified for the 1976 Olympics. In 1977 he was voted France’s “Sportsman of the Year”.

Not surprisingly clubs from abroad began taking interest in this remarkably developing footballer. Both Valencia and Inter approached Nancy, but the fee of £1 million put them off. Then Paris Saint-Germain and Saint-Etienne entered the bidding. So, after seven seasons with Nancy, for whom he hit 98 goals in 175 league games and won the cup in 1978, Platini left to further his career with a top-class club in every sense.

Why Saint-Etienne?

“Simply, they were the best club in France. In the previous 12 years they had won the title seven times and the cup five times. They had won the league and cup double four times in that period. There was no doubt about their quality. Also, you remember, Saint-Etienne had reached the European Champions’ Cup final in 1976 when they lost very unluckily against Bayern Munich in Glasgow. Almost every French boy wanted to play for them, not just me.”

At first everything seemed fine. In 1981 SaintEtienne stormed to their tenth league title. But the next and last season he spent with the club was probably the worst for him on and off the field. In the European Cup Saint-Etienne were quickly put out by the dour East Germans from Dynamo Berlin; in the championship they were pipped by one point by Monaco.

So then you were ready to go to Italy?

“The Italians had ended their ban on foreign players – which had been imposed in the mid-1960s – in 1980. But at the time I was under contract to Saint-Etienne who had no wish to let me go. They didn’t need the money.

At first the Italians allowed their first division clubs only one foreign player each. But then, in 1982, they decided to open the rules up to allow two imports per team. By coincidence that was when my contract with Saint-Etienne came to an end and so, after the World Cup

finals in Spain, I signed for Juventus.

“I know people said I replaced Liam Brady, forced him out even, but that was a simplistic idea. In 1982, as I said, the Italians decided to allow each club to field two foreign players instead of one. Juventus had Brady already but wanted to sign both myself and Zbigniew Boniek from Poland as well. Clearly there wasn’t room for all three of us, so Brady went to Sampdoria.

But whether I replaced him or Boniek did is something for which there is no easy answer.”

What differences did you find between playing in France and playing in Italy?

“The very obvious one, which is no real secret.

In Italy it’s the defence which matters most. Every team takes care to try to get the defence right,

What is it like to play for Juventus?

“One of the great experiences of one’s life. You are playing at the summit of the game. Juventus are a very ambitious club and this gets through to everyone involved in the club. They are also a very fair and generous club. Win everything and the rewards are good. I can say that morale among the players is very high. Our results over the past few years prove the point.”

Not every result has gone your way, though.

What went wrong in the defeat by Hamburg in the European Cup final in 1983?

“At that level, there is very little to separate the two teams who reach such a match. People who made us such clear favourites weren’t being realistic, they were underrating Hamburg –

“Whether I have any particular talent which is out of the ordinary is not for me to judge. If coaches and journalists think that, I am very flattered but I don’t go around claiming that on my own behalf” in terms of players and tactics. They reason that if they don’t concede then at least they are sure of one point out of the game. Above all, the result is what matters. And when they talk in Italy about the result, they mean a draw or a win. Defeat doesn’t count as a result, it’s a sort of disaster.”

which wasn’t fair on them or us. Hamburg happened to get an early goal through Felix Magath. That gave them an obvious advantage.

They defended very well, were very intelligently organised and were determined to hang on to their lead. There was nothing we could do.”

What about the fans?

“It’s a fact that many more people come along to see us play in Turin than in France. That I can’t deny. But I believe I was very lucky while I was playing in France, because the supporters at Nancy and then at Saint-Etienne were quite as magnificent as those of Juventus have proved themselves. Perhaps not everyone has had that luck. But again, I can only speak as I find.”

And what of the day you did, eventually, win the European Cup, in Brussels?

“A day I want to forget. We won the match but what did it matter? At Juventus we want to win it again to prove we can be worthy champions.

But Brussels...I can never forget. I don’t like talking about it. It brings back too much.”

Surrounded by the bulk of Italy’s World Cup winners and the newly-acquired Pole Boniek, Platini’s talents flourished. He became the league’s top scorer in each of his three seasons in Italy, and the awards kept pouring in. Platini strolled off with the Golden Ball (for the best player) and Golden Boot (for nine-goal top scorer) after the 1984 French European Championship triumph, and in both 1983 and 1984 he was clear winner of the European Footballer of the Year crown.

In 1983 Platini won with 110 points, ahead of runner-up Kenny Dalglish who polled 26 points. In 1984 his triumph was even more overwhelming; he received a record 128 out of a possible 130 points. Only two journalists placed Platini second - giving their top vote to Jean Tigana and Ian Rush.

Platini has become a wealthy man in Italian football. He ranks only ninth in the table of Italian basic salary earners, but, unlike those ahead of him, he is allowed to keep his earnings from promotion and sponsorship to himself. He also runs a football school and is presenter of a football show for “Tele Monte Carlo”.

His old school mates who once mocked his sticking out ears now sit transfixed watching his ball virtuosity on television.

Looking ahead, what can you and France achieve at the 1986 World Cup? “I’m not going to make any boasts about what we will do. I realise that after finishing fourth in Spain, and after winning the Euros, we will be among the favourites in Mexico. All I can promise is that we will do our best to win. People talk about the altitude, heat, smog and playing at midday. But to my mind the only problem will be the altitude. As for the rest – it’s amazing how a little bit of success can carry you through.

The most dangerous opponents are going to be the obvious ones, as usual. From Europe you must pick out England, West Germany, Italy; from South America, it’s Brazil and Argentina, as well as the hosts, Mexico, of course.”

What about rumours of your retirement?

“I haven’t set a date. My contract with Juventus ends in June 1986 and then I will take stock.

When I do stop playing I’ll spend my time looking after my business interests, and in particular my sports centre at St Cyprien in the South of France.

Also my family is very important to me. My wife, my children, my parents are my ‘refuge’ from all the pressures of being what I have become to the outside world. It’s the peace I find in my home, with my family, which keeps me sane.”

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

13

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Diego MARADONA

1986

Iconic year…Diego Maradona owned1986

Hard man to pin down

D

iego Armando Maradona has proved a hard man to pin down – as much off the pitch as on it – since the 1986 World Cup final on June 29.

Hardly surprising. After that, life could never be the same again – even for this 25-year-old who has become accustomed to persistent pursuit by the media and by his admirers in Naples in Italy in general, back home in Buenos Aires...and in the world at large.

Maradona was voted World Soccer’s World Player of the Year because of his outstanding performances in leading Argentina to their World Cup victory.

He had been criticised in the past and, in particular, in comparison with French star Michel Platini as being technically brilliant but lacking in career achievement. But in just a few weeks in Mexico he put all that to rights, for there can be no greater achievement for an individual in a team game than to captain your country to the World Cup. That success appeared to provide Maradona with new confidence on his return to the club game with Napoli, who currently lead the Italian league and possess an outstanding chance of taking the title for the first time in their history.

In addition to Maradona’s personal accolade, Argentina’s World Cup winners were voted World Soccer’s World Team of the Year (albeit by just 0.04 per cent ahead of the imperious European Cup Winners’ Cup champions Dynamo Kiev)

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Goal of the century…

Maradona’s solo effort v England

1986 DIEGO MARADONA because of their success in Mexico – where they were not only the best team but possessed the best individuals.

It is a reflection of the impression they left on viewers that players such as Maradona, Jorge Burruchaga and Jorge Valdano all figured in the top 20.

The value of Maradona’s triumph in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca has been calculated at a staggering £3 million this coming year in endorsements and promotional and sponsorship contracts.

But he is already putting something back. He is helping to publicise a fundraising game for UNICEF, and that personal crusade struck a chord when it was eventually possible to pin Maradona down and ask him all about his World Cup. In his words: “I want to dedicate this World Cup victory to the children of today who are as poor as I once was.

“If those who were able to watch our win over West Germany thanks to television were able to do so then l am pleased. Maybe in that way I, and my team-mates, were able to bring a little happiness into their lives.”

An unfair criticism launched at Argentina throughout the World Cup – to a large extent by critics who saw them mostly via TV rather than in the stadium – was that they were a one-man team.

This was a nonsense. Maradona was the tournament’s outstanding individual. But

everyone that he knows just when to hold it and just when to release it.

“It was our manager, Carlos Bilardo, who put all our schemes into our heads so that we got to know what each player would do without even having to call.”

Bilardo, a former midfielder with the cynical Estudiantes de La Plata in the late 1960s, had withstood steady criticism all the way up to the finals.

Maradona says: “I admire him tremendously. He was the architect of our success. He suffered because of the perpetual attacks, but I’m so grateful that through it all he always believed in me. Daniel Passarella (ruled out of the finals by illness and then injury) was the pupil of Cesar Menotti, our World Cup-winning manager in 1978. I fulfilled the same role for Bilardo.”

Despite Bilardo’s World Cup triumph and tactical masterclass, he finished fourth in our Manager poll behind Guy Thys (Belgium), Valeri Lobanovskyi (Dynamo Kiev and the Soviet Union) and Kenny Dalglish (Liverpool).

Maradona believes that Argentina benefited from the general belief, until late in the tournament, that they were World Cup outsiders. This spared the team much of the pressure which stifled Brazil, which slowly wore down France, which unnerved Uruguay and which led Denmark into the trap of overconfidence.

There can be no greater achievement for an individual in a team game than to captain your country to the World Cup ultimate victory would have been impossible without the high degree of understanding within the team.

Maradona says: “We understood each other and the way we all wanted to play the game. I found it particularly easy to work with Jorge Valdano – our forward from Real Madrid. If he dropped back then it seemed only natural that I should find myself moving forward to use the space he had left. The same with Jorge Burruchaga. When he was younger he was considered a little selfish on the ball. Now he showed

Held aloft…Diego with the World Cup trophy

“I had expected that France and Brazil would have been our greatest rivals. Yet neither even got as far as the final: Brazil because Zico missed a penalty he could not afford to waste... and France because, against the West Germans in the semi-final, they appeared to lack confidence and then perhaps the altitude and the heat got to them.”

Not that Maradona admitted feeling any ill-effects from the stage-managed kick-off times, rearranged to suit European television.

“It didn’t feel any different playing at midday or at four in the afternoon.

Usually, before a game I go to bed late the previous night and then sleep through until 11 in the morning. Obviously I had to change my routine in Mexico.

“As for the altitude, in the early days after we arrived I felt strange pain in the chest which I’d never experienced before. But I adjusted. Everyone did.

I don’t think the fact that we won the World Cup means we adjusted better.

Simply – and I honestly believe this – we played better.”

Philip Rising & Keir Radnedge

Top 10 Players of 1986 Player 1) Diego Maradona 2) Igor Belanov 3) Gary Lineker 4) Emilio Butragueno 5) Jan Ceulemans 6) Michael Laudrup 7) Preben Elkjaer 8) Careca 9=) Jean-Marie Pfaff 9=) Jorge Burruchaga

Club Napoli Dynamo Kiev Barcelona Real Madrid Club Brugge Juventus Verona Sao Paulo Bayern Munich Nantes

Country % of vote Argentina 35.8 Soviet Union 6.2 England 5.7 Spain 4.9 Belgium 4.4 Denmark 4.1 Denmark 3.7 Brazil 3.5 Belgium 3.4 Argentina 3.4

Born entertainer…Maradona

Other World Soccer Award winners 1986

World champions…

Argentina

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Argentina Thys…guided Belgium to fourth at the World Cup – their bestever placing

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Guy Thys, Belgium

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

“You will never find me saying

I’m the best”

1986 DIEGO MARADONA What was your overall opinion of the 1986 World Cup? It was a World Cup of football.

Unlike 1982 in Spain, which was a World Cup of bruises. I was particularly excited by the match between France and Brazil – I just didn’t want it to finish! I really enjoyed watching it. It was a pity one of them had to be eliminated. In fact, I thought Brazil had a very good World Cup despite all the criticism they got back home. I thought they deserved to reach the final.

Which players did you most enjoy watching in Mexico?

I liked Michael Laudrup of Denmark in particular and also Enzo Scifo – though I thought the Belgians used him in much too deep a position, at least against us I’m glad to say! Zbigniew Boniek is a player I have always admired greatly in Italy but he did not have a good World Cup. I think he was tired after a hard season with Roma. As for Michel Platini, he wasn’t at his best either. Of course he must rank among the finest players of our generation, but I think his era is over.

What was Argentina’s great strength in winning the tournament?

Team spirit. In 1982 we had a lot of individual stars. Excellent footballers, very famous and with international reputations. We just took it all too easily. The squad this time was one which contained a lot of players who wanted to make their names – they had that hunger to do well. Most were stars in Argentina but virtually unknown anywhere else. They were battling for themselves and that worked well for the team. Simply we played better.

What did it mean to you and Argentina to win the World Cup? It was an unforgettable day for Argentine football and the greatest day of my career – to have won the most important trophy of all, by defeating first-class opposition.

I have to admit I thought, after we had won, about all the people who had said and written unkind things. Then I thought of my mother and my father – and my brother Lalo, who was trying to get to me with tears of joy running down his face.

What did I have to be bitter about?

What about the goal you “handled” in the quarter-final against England?

That’s a matter for the referee. If he had seen something wrong it was up to him to stop the game. It was an accident of play, something which has not happened only to me, either.

Ask Zico or Platini or Rummenigge. They will all tell you that they have scored a goal with their hand at some time or another.

Many footballers have said that it is impossible to play in Napoli because of the volatility of the fans and the city.

I think that’s exaggerated. The Napoli supporters are very passionate about their football, but so were the fans in Barcelona.

I can live with that. Better that than the other way round. When I’m no longer happy there I’ll go. But I’ve certainly no plans to go right now!

How were you affected by the welcome home you received in Buenos Aires?

Such a multitude of people and all of us in tears!

When I went to my parents’ home the crowds almost knocked the doors down. When the president invited me to the Casa Rosada and I stood on the balcony…I felt like the president!

No, seriously, I felt very close to the fans.

And after Napoli?

When the World Cup was over the president of Napoli phoned me to say he wanted me to stay with the club until the end of my playing career. He even asked me what money I would want to make such a commitment. But I’m not ready for that. For example, there was an inquiry from an English club – yes, people say Tottenham Hotspur but again that’s not for me to comment – and at one time I would not have ruled out the possibility of going there. But now it is unlikely. I wouldn’t mind playing in Brazil.

I like their style of football and I have a lot of friends there. But ultimately I would really like to finish my career back with Boca Juniors.

Do you believe that Diego Maradona is now the world’s No.1 player?

No, I don’t like to think about things like that.

I know I’m not the world’s worst but you will never find me saying I’m the best. If other people choose to say so, that is their business.

One day Platini is the king, the next day it’s Rummenigge and the next day Elkjaer.

They are all superb players. How can you compare them? It’s just not realistic.

But other players now look up to you.

Doesn’t that have an impression on you?

I don’t like to hear about being a “leader” or a “caudillo” as they say in Argentine football.

I believe only in those who are examples.

Like Daniel Passarella, who is an exemplary team-mate. I don’t believe in the sort of players who make a great show on the pitch so the fans can see they are the most important. Football is a team game and you must treat everyone as one more member of the team.

Now you have won the World Cup, what is your next ambition?

In football there is always the next match, the next target. In my case it is to win the Italian championship with Napoli. I dream of achieving that before I leave Italian football.

I’m not saying we WILL win it. I am saying I desperately want to win it. We do need to win something this season. The fans have been very patient but now we owe it to them.

You spent two controversial seasons with Barcelona. Do you regret playing in Spain?

No, I went to Spain determined to do well and I left only because of the Barcelona president, Jose Luis Nunez. You know, if the offer was good enough I might even play for Real Madrid…I said once that I could never wear their colours. But that was before I had my problems with Nunez! Having said that, I have never received an offer from Madrid – either direct or indirect.

While at Barcelona you were badly injured by that notorious foul by Andoni Goikoetxea of Athletic Bilbao. What are your views on that now?

Again, it’s history. Nothing can change what happened. I have to say I believe Goikoetxea has always been overrated in Spain. After the World Cup defeat by Belgium, some of the Spanish directors said to me that they lost because Goikoetxea couldn’t play. But I never rated him as the sort of player to turn a game.

Butragueno, yes. He plays on the side of angels – like Lineker and Careca.

Those are the players I like to watch.

That’s the sort of football I like.

Maradona

World Cup-winning captain Interview: Keir Radnedge & Rino Landa

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

17

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Ruud GULLIT

1987

Unique…1987 was the first cover where the award winner wasn’t pictured

“I like total freedom”

Ruud Gullit speaks to World Soccer after winning our World Player of the Year award for 1987…

How did you prepare for your Italian adventure?

For three months I took an Italian language course, one lesson each week. I had no great knowledge of football in Italy. Dutch television shows goals from the Italian championship from time to time but that hardly teaches you anything. I knew, of course, that it would be very different and I was warned to be careful, particularly about the power of the press in Italy to influence officials and fans. But you cannot let yourself become frightened of going out of the front door. Some Italian players cut themselves right off from anybody because if they go out the least gesture or word is criticised.

You never see an Italian player at a concert or a disco. But you’ll see me!

And if the papers make big headlines and big pictures the next day, so what?

How do you cope with all the attention everywhere you go?

I accept that this is part of my life now. People wouldn’t understand if I did not spare them a little of my time.

Anyway, the supporters in the north of Italy are comparatively restrained. The further south you go the more they

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

want of you. I can’t imagine what it must be like for Diego Maradona at Napoli.

Do you think your unique hairstyle means you attract more attention?

Everyone needs an image which reflects their personality. I like total freedom in all things. That includes my hair!

Milan are in transition so how do you rate your form so far in Italy?

We are a team with a long way to go yet, that’s true. But we are learning to play in a much more attacking style than is usual in Italy. That much I’ve learned already!

We still need more time to get it right.

Our coach, Arrigo Sacchi, wants us to play with three forwards. That’s hard, particularly on the Italians, because such tactics demand a great deal of flexibility from players who are brought up to play everything cautiously from the back.

Italian adventure…

Milan new boy

1987 RUUD GULLIT Have you forgotten the time you spent in the Netherlands as a sweeper?

Certainly not. How could I? I spent a long time as a sweeper. First when I was a junior at DWS Amsterdam. It wasn’t until I went to Haarlem that I was stuck out on the right wing. And even then they switched me back to sweeper in the middle of my first season...until Excelsior beat us 6-0! That got me dropped and when I got back into the team it was in midfield. But I’ve always thought of myself more as an attacker than a defender. The closer I get to the opponents’ goal, the happier I get. Once we got down to serious talks with the Milan president, Signor Berlusconi, I made it clear how and where I am happiest playing.

Which was the most important period of your “apprenticeship”?

The time I spent at Feyenoord, I think.

I remember Wim van Hanegem saying to me, all the time: “Think ahead, think ahead.” Really, I was ignorant about the game when I went to Feyenoord. But I was lucky to spend three years working alongside people like Van Hanegem and Cruyff. I learned from watching them play, how they dealt with all the problems that arise out on the pitch.

At that time the great young hope of Dutch football was Gerald Vanenburg.

Was there any rivalry between you?

Not at all. Vanenburg got a lot of fuss.

But that happens to a player every few years. Before him there was Ton Blanker.

He was going to be the new Cruyff. But where is be now? Recently there has

What has Italian football taught you?

Patience. Above all when we play at home against opponents who rely on catenaccio. No one would dare play like it in the Netherlands. I remember teams would come to Eindhoven accepting quite calmly that it was going to be a massacre. No one plays like that in Italy.

If you can’t win, then you shut up the defence. I suppose anyone who did that back home would cause a huge outcry.

Was that one of the reasons you felt it was time to move on?

Let’s be clear: you can see some very good Dutch football. But PSV were too strong. We only got a handful of testing matches each season: when we played in Europe or against Ajax and Feyenoord.

When Milan first approached me last season I knew at once that I had to move on to progress. Now that I’ve become accustomed to the pressure here I think I am much better able to cope with the responsibility of playing for my country.

Before, I would get very uptight but, having felt what pressure is in Italy, I now approach games with total confidence.

Do you consider yourself as the focal point of the team with Milan or with the Dutch national side?

No. I would even go as far as to say that this sort of player is extinct, like the dinosaur or the dodo. Platini was the last.

Football is becoming faster all the time and now depends on groups of players.

Even at Napoli. You watch them. Diego Maradona doesn’t run the whole show.

He is brought into play, or intervenes

Top 10 Players of 1987 Player 1) Ruud Gullit 2) Diego Maradona 3) Marco van Basten 4) Emilio Butragueno 5) Paulo Futre 6=) Ian Rush 6=) Gary Lineker 8) Hugo Sanchez 9=) Michel Platini 9=) Rabah Madjer

Club PSV/Milan Napoli Ajax/Milan Real Madrid Porto/Atletico Madrid Liverpool/Juventus Barcelona Real Madrid Juventus Porto

Country % of vote Netherlands 38.5 Argentina 13.1 Netherlands 8.8 Spain 6 Portugal 5 Wales 3 England 3 Mexico 2 France 1 Algeria 1

Top two…Gullit and Maradona

Other World Soccer Award winners 1987 European champions…

Porto beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in Vienna

“I was lucky to spend three years working alongside people like Van Hanegem and Cruyff…I learned from watching them play, how they dealt with all the problems that arise out on the pitch” been great talk about the boy Bryan Roy, at Ajax. I suppose my good fortune was that I never found myself facing that sort of problem. I wasn’t a teenage superstar.

At ease…

Gullit is now relaxed with the press

himself, only at the vital moments. That is how Argentina won the World Cup. Of course, the Netherlands weren’t there in Mexico. But they will be in West Germany for the European Championship finals. Can you win?

We are ready for the finals. Whether we will win I cannot say. But I will promise this: people will really enjoy watching us try. We have an excellent squad. If someone is injured or suspended then we have other players of such quality that nobody is missed. The one regret I have is that Rinus Michels is retiring as manager after the finals. I wish he could stay a few more years. Dutch football needs him in that job.

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Porto

Manager of the Year…

Cruyff (left) polled a quarter of the vote

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Johan Cruyff, Ajax

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Marco VAN BASTEN 1988

Dutch treat…Oranje dominates

Deadly Dutchman takes the crown

M

arco van Basten is World Footballer of the Year for 1988.

That was the hardly surprising conclusion from World Soccer’ss annual poll conducted among readers and writers.

Van Basten’s decisive contribution to Milan’s thrilling Italian league title takeover was followed by his even more spectacular influence on the Netherlands’ European Championship triumph, where he scored a first-round hat-trick against England, the semi-final winner against West Germany and then one of the all-time great international goals in the final against the Soviet Union.

Van Basten succeeds another Dutchman to the world crown, Milan and Netherlands team-mate Ruud Gullit, who was voted into second place, with Frank Rijkaard third to complete a unique hat-trick.

This is the first time in our awards history that players from one country and one club have taken each of the top three places.

It also confirms the pre-eminence of the Italian league, for the award winners, ever since 1982, have all

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Wondergoal…

Van Basten’s Euros final epic volley v Soviet Union

1988 MARCO VAN BASTEN

Top 10 Players of 1988 Player 1) Marco van Basten 2) Ruud Gullit 3) Frank Rijkaard 4) Ronald Koeman 5) Alexei Mikhailichenko 6) Diego Maradona 7) Gianluca Vialli 8) Alexander Zavarov 9) John Barnes 10) Romario

Club Milan Milan Milan PSV Dynamo Kiev Napoli Sampdoria Juventus Liverpool PSV

Country % of vote Netherlands 43 Netherlands 21 Netherlands 7 Netherlands 6 Soviet Union 5 Argentina 2.3 Italy 2.2 Soviet Union 2.1 England 2 Brazil 1.2

Double Dutch…Rijkaard and Van Basten celebrate

been playing with Italian clubs at the time of their poll success.

The 1988 campaign is also only the second one in which one nation has managed a clean sweep across the awards board with the Netherlands’ European title-winning boss Rinus Michels scooping the World Manager of the Year award and then the Dutch taking the World Team of the Year crown. The only previous instance was, coincidentally, in the last European Championship year in 1984 when Michel Platini, Michel Hidalgo and the French national side took the plaudits.

Second this year behind Michels in the Manager vote was Jack Charlton, whose success in steering the Republic of Ireland to the brink of the semi-finals

attention in the 1983 World Youth Cup finals in Mexico. He scored 128 league goals for Ajax at a rate of almost one a game before being sold for £1.5 million last summer to Milan.

Van Basten’s potential was so obvious in his teens that Ajax were able to sell 1982 Golden Shoe winner Wim Kieft a year after he was crowned Europe’s top marksman. Van Basten’s most remarkable spell was at the start of the 1983-84 season when he scored 12 goals in his first seven league games, including a hat-trick in an 8-2 win over Feyenoord. He went on to total 28 goals that season and finished as Golden Shoe runner-up to Ian Rush.

In 1984-85 he scored 22 league goals and hit five in a single European

in their first-ever appearance at a major event was appreciated worldwide – just as Arrigo Sacchi’s managerial role at Milan was not overlooked by our readers, for all the publicity granted to Van Basten and Gullit.

PSV, as European club champions, are obvious runners-up to their own national team with Liverpool’s consistency again earning a top three place.

Cup tie against Red Boys of Luxembourg.

In 1985-86 he won the coveted Golden Boot himself thanks to 37 goals in 26 league games. Last season he collected another 31 and not only captained Ajax to victory in the European Cup Winners’ Cup but scored their winner in the final against Lokomotive Leipzig.

Milan bought him, despite competition from Barcelona, Roma and Werder Bremen, to replace Mark Hateley. He missed most of the season because of injury but returned for the run-in to score several vital goals as substitute. To top that, Van Basten then ended the European Championship finals as the top scorer with five goals as well as the top player’s crown.

Keir Radnedge

Top three…numbers 8, 9 and10 – Rijkaard, Van Basten and Gullit

Other World Soccer Award winners 1988 European champions…

Dutch delight

Van Basten’s decisive contribution to Milan’s thrilling Italian league title takeover was followed by his even more spectacular influence on the Netherlands’ European Championship triumph

MARCO VAN BASTEN PROFILE Born in Utrecht, Van Basten joined Ajax from amateur side Elinkwijk in 1981, quickly making his Ajax firstteam debut at the age of 17 as a substitute for Johan Cruyff.

He first came to international

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Netherlands Managerial masterclass…

Michels

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Rinus Michels, Netherlands/Bayer Leverkusen

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

21

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Ruud GULLIT

1989

Cover star…this time, unlike in1987, Gullit graced the front of World Soccer

Ruud tops the honours

R

uud Gullit is your World Footballer of the Year. In our annual poll the Dutch superstar, despite having played only a handful of matches this year, finished narrowly ahead of his Milan and Netherlands partner Marco van Basten.

Even though knee trouble has kept Gullit sidelined for much of 1989, his interventions on the international scene have been decisive – not only for the Netherlands in the World Cup qualifiers but, probably above all, in inspiring Milan’s Champions’ Cup triumph over Steaua Bucharest in Madrid last May. Gullit had not played since injuring his knee accidentally in the semi-final dismissal of Real Madrid. But Milan patched him up for this one vital game and he scored twice in the 4-0 success. But Gullit, Milan and Netherlands have paid a heavy price.

It has since become clear that he was really not fit to play and has been absent most of the rest of the time because of complications arising from aggravation of the injury that memorable night.

In the meantime it has been left to Van Basten to carry the Dutch torch, which he has done magnificently above all in this season’s repeat victory over Real Madrid and despite a knee operation of his own at the start of September.

22

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Iconic…

Gullit led Milan’s rise to the best in Europe

1989 RUUD GULLIT

Top 10 Players of 1989 Player 1) Ruud Gullit 2) Marco van Basten 3) Bebeto 4) Diego Maradona 5) Franco Baresi 6) Peter Shilton 7) Romario 8) Michael Laudrup 9) Lothar Matthaus 10) Ruben Sosa

Club Milan Milan Flamengo/Vasco Napoli Milan Derby County PSV Juventus/Barcelona Internazionale Lazio

Country % of vote Netherlands 24 Netherlands 18 Brazil 10 Argentina 7 Italy 6.5 England 6 Brazil 5 Denmark 4 West Germany 3 Uruguay 2.5

Victorious…Gullit lifting the Champions’ Cup trophy

Third in our poll is Brazilian star Bebeto – his placing due recognition of a new generation of Brazilian stars and acknowledgement of his role in their South American championship triumph.

Manager of the Year is Milan’s Arrigo Sacchi, his promotion from third last year due to the way in which Milan’s Champions’ Cup triumph vindicated his positive approach to soccer in as demanding a milieu as Italian football.

RUUD GULLIT PROFILE

Born Rudi Dil, Ruud Gullit was previously acclaimed as 1987 European Footballer of the Year (courtesy of France Football)

His father is from Suriname, his mother from the Netherlands, and Gullit was born in Amsterdam. He played as a teenager for Meerboys and DWS before making a league breakthrough under Barry Hughes at Haarlem.

He moved on to Feyenoord and PSV before joining Milan for a world-record £6 million in 1987, and duly inspired the Rossoneri’s thrilling Italian championship and Champions’ Cup-winning campaigns.

He made his Netherlands debut in a 2-1 defeat by Switzerland in Zurich in September 1981, but was a controversial figure in the Netherlands’

Integral…Gullit is key for the Dutch

Other World Soccer Award winners 1989

Gullit’s interventions on the international scene have been decisive – not only for the Netherlands but, probably above all, in inspiring Milan’s Champions’ Cup triumph and World Player of the Year (courtesy of World Soccer). He is one of the most distinguished and distinctive players in the game with his iconic dreadlocks and all-round skills.

Knee problem…Gullit has been plagued by injury

European Championship success after sacrificing his individualistic style to the needs of the tactics laid down by coach Rinus Michels.

Gullit contributed the Netherlands’ first goal in the 2-0 defeat of the Soviet Union in the Euros final and, as captain, carried off the cup. But he paid a heavy price, and so did Milan. Reaction from the leg injury he carried through the European finals dogged him in the early part of last season. He then injured his right knee in an accident in the European Cup semi-final against Real Madrid.

Keyhole surgery brought him back in time for the final against Steaua Bucharest in which he scored twice and was inspirational.

Keir Radnedge

Beating Steaua Bucharest…Milan won 51 per cent of the vote

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Milan Tactician…

Sacchi topped the poll after finishing third in1988

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Arrigo Sacchi, Milan

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

23

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Lothar MATTHAUS

1990

Bossing it…Matthaus on the cover

Deutschland über alles

T

hat’s the chorus of World Soccer readers in casting their votes in the annual poll to name the World Player of the Year, the World Manager of the Year and the World Team of the Year.

Top player is West Germany’s World Cup-winning captain Lothar Matthaus; top boss is his cup-winning team chief, Franz Beckenbauer; almost inevitably, then, West Germany are the year’s top team.

At the end of World Cup year, of course, it is a racing certainty that the accolades will shower upon the men most successful in the most prestigious event in football. Yet this is the first time the World Cup winners have achieved an awards hat-trick.

In 1982 Italy provided the Player in Paolo Rossi, the Manager in Enzo Bearzot, but NOT the Team; in 1986 Argentina provided the Player in Diego Maradona and the Team in Argentina but NOT the Manager.

The voting – YOUR voting – presents a fascinating insight into perceptions of the game worldwide.

Remember, World Soccer’s readers are spread around the globe from Chile to China,

24

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

In control…

Matthaus against England in the semis

1990 LOTHAR MATTHAUS

Top 10 Players of 1990 Player 1) Lothar Matthaus 2) Toto Schillaci 3) Diego Maradona 4) Jurgen Klinsmann 5) Paul Gascoigne 6) Roberto Baggio 7) Andreas Brehme 8) Roger Milla 9) Franco Baresi 10) John Barnes

Club Internazionale Juventus Napoli Internazionale Tottenham Hotspur Juventus Internazionale Saint-Pierroise/Tonnerre Milan Liverpool

Country % of vote West Germany 21.9 Italy 12.1 Argentina 6.6 West Germany 6.2 England 5.8 Italy 5.5 West Germany 5.1 Cameroon 4.7 Italy 4.4 England 4

World champion…top of the world

from Bogota to Beijing.

Matthaus was always the clear favourite for the prestigious Player’s award, which will be presented to him

by World Soccer during his “year in office”. The award does not necessarily mean he is the world’s most naturally talented player. But it does reward the

golden moment into the World Player of the Year crown, Matthaus follows in the footsteps of Diego Maradona in 1986.

Votes of thanks to the televisual promptings of the World Cup are owed

by Italy’s Toto Schillaci for his placing as runner-up and by England’s Paul

No player can aspire any higher than to captain the winning team in the final of the World Cup…Matthaus follows in the footsteps of Diego Maradona in 1986 powerful mixture of dedication and achievement in what will doubtless prove the high spot of his career.

No player can aspire any higher than to captain the winning team in the final of the World Cup. In translating that

Key player…starring for his club Internazionale

Gascoigne, a narrow fifth behind Jurgen Klinsmann.

Third is Maradona, proving that, love him or loathe him, you cannot ignore him. He draws fans in their thousands to cheer and to jeer. He remains the most extravagantly gifted footballer of his generation – and, because of that, perhaps also the most infuriating.

One down the list is Roberto Baggio, thrillingly justifying his standing with Juventus as the world’s most expensive footballer. Andreas Brehme is the sixth Italian-based star to feature in the top seven. Then, at eight, is Roger Milla, who personified the Cameroon breakthrough.

The Netherlands’ recession is signified in Ruud Gullit’s fall from Player of the Year in 1989 to 19th place – while Marco van Basten, third in 1987, winner in 1988 and runner-up in 1989, drops out of the top 20 altogether. Clearly the sad images of Italia ’90 outweighed the memories of Milan’s all-conquering style in the European Cup last term.

Keir Radnedge

Opponents…Matthaus and Gascoigne both made the top five

Other World Soccer Award winners 1990 World Cup match winner…

Brehme with Klinsmann

TEAM OF THE YEAR: West Germany Triumphant…

Der Kaiser

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Franz Beckenbauer, West Germany

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

25

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Armchair M

ention of Italia ’90 will forever conjure up visions of Gazza howling to that tune from Turandot.

Tears by the Kleenex Kid; music by Puccini.

But, in reality, the Italian extravaganza was hijacked by the Wagnerian brigade, led by the tough and telling West German captain, Lothar Matthaus. Legs by Michelangelo: wealth thanks to £500,000 a year from Internazionale.

For 29-year-old Bavarian Matthaus laying hands on the golden trophy represented the pinnacle of a career that began in less than glorious circumstances with his training as a home furnishings fitter...just in case. But Lothar Herbert Matthaus has not been required to upholster too many armchairs on his way to sporting immortality.

The claims of other World Cup heroes such as Klinsmann, Brehme, Milla and Schillaci jostled for attention, but Matthaus edged away from the illustrious crowd the moment his second spectacular goal against Yugoslavia in the first round of the World Cup finals hit the net.

He might have sauntered out to the wing but the destroyer-turned-playmaker surged forward, high-hurdled a tackle, and finished with a shot that inspired many a Pavarottiaccompanied action replay.

“I cannot say that winning the World Cup was the greatest moment in my life because I have a wife and family, [and] they come before sport,” said Matthaus. “Football is my hobby.

“But the World Cup was proof I have progressed. In my first final in 1986 I played to

26

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

rider

No.1 Matthaus is sitting pretty Words: Sue Mott

The universal player…

Internazionale’s key man

control Maradona. This time, I was the leader of the Germans.

That is my four-year advance. I am good for the coaches because I can play anywhere in the middle, although my favourite position is just behind the strikers.”

This has been a matter of evolution. Young Matthaus, when he could be persuaded out of the bierkeller, was valued for his containment

skills rather than sweeping attacks. A bomb disposal expert rather than the dynamite.

In 1982 he played in the West German team on tour in South America and was awarded the exacting role of marking Maradona and Zico.

At just 21 this could be considered precocious.

He was simultaneously acquiring a reputation for waywardness, driving £15,000 worth of new Mercedes into garden fences while under the influence of cocktails and youthful exuberance.

1990 LOTHAR MATTHAUS

Career pinnacle…Matthaus parades the trophy with team-mate Pierre Littbarski

Mutual appreciation…Matthaus and Paul Gascoigne

“I was not good. But it’s normal for young men to drink beer and whisky. I had to learn.

After that crash, I didn’t drink and drive again.

“The night before matches I might have one beer with dinner and only after the match will I drink three. Or four.”

Rebellion over and happily married to childhood sweetheart Sylvia, Matthaus has enjoyed some success at his hobby. Since winning his first cap against the Netherlands in the 1980 Euros he has progressed from being a disputatious non-leaguer with Herzogenaurach into a dominant force for Internazionale, where he plays with fellow-German lire-mongers Andreas Brehme and Jurgen Klinsmann.

Along the way he played with Borussia Monchengladbach before moving in 1984 to Bayern Munich, where he won three Bundesliga titles and the German Cup. The transfer to Italy in 1988 reflected his new incarnation as the thoroughly modern footballer.

“Lothar is the universal player,” said his club manager, Giovanni Trapattoni. “He is the complete modern footballer.

“He has the character of a winner, he has good technique and he was simply the best in the World Cup. He is very important to us.

“I knew him when he was young and he was very immature in mind and behaviour, but after he came to Milan he had a transformation.

His mind is now quiet and mature.”

Which is just as well given the Milanese rapture that greets him everywhere he goes in his adopted city. “Italy is a different culture,” said Klinsmann. “They talk and talk and talk about football without any end.

“It’s not possible for Lothar to walk down the street. They recognise him in a second. They want to touch him. Sometimes it is difficult to accept that they treat football as life and death.”

But Matthaus has adapted. His ties are Italian silk, his diet is Italian pasta (supplied on the road by Inter’s travelling chef) and his ambition is to supplement the Italian title won in 1989.

In a career spanning ten glorious years he has never won a single European trophy.

His World Cup record makes up this omission slightly, but in both finals Matthaus has been

“I am another player, a different type,” said Matthaus hotly. “Twenty years ago, football was very different. It went slowly. There was time to stop the ball, look and play. Now you look and shoot all in one moment.

“But I still see big stars today: Gascoigne, Schillaci, Baresi. To me Maradona is still Maradona, the greatest player in the world.

“And England, as a team, have improved.

Now England teams play very well. They have technique. Gascoigne – what do you call him?

Gazzo? – is crazy. But in a positive way. He is good for football. Players like him are an inspiration for young people in the street.”

Whether Beckenbauer, friend and mentor to Matthaus, was inspiration to the latest German captain is a moot point.

less than fortunate. In 1986, while guarding Maradona he was forced to play with a broken wrist disguised by a flesh-coloured bandage.

“Football is my work. When you have a chance to play in the World Cup final, I don’t care if you have two broken hands or two broken legs, you still play, I play for Germany with my heart.”

In Rome, a pair of new boots sabotaged his moment of glory. Reports at the time suggested that Matthaus refused to take the 84th-minute penalty against Argentina due to an ankle injury. The truth was more mundane.

“I split a boot in the first half and had to change to new ones for the second. It would not have been good for me psychologically to take the penalty, so Brehme was given the job.

I did not wish it was me. I am a non-egotist.”

“Lothar is the universal player…the complete modern footballer. He has the character of a winner, he has good technique and he was simply the best in the World Cup”

Inter coach Giovanni Trapattoni

But the non-egotist can be roused by suggestions that West Germany, circa 1990, bear little comparison in terms of shining star quality with West Germany ’74, Beckenbauer, Breitner and Muller; or even the Rahn-inspired boys of ’54 who beat Hungary in the final. The Hungary of Puskas, Kocsis and Hidegkuti.

Family man…football comes second

Silky elegance is hardly a hallmark. Aggression, speed and muscular endeavour have replaced Beckenbauer’s urbanity. But in the general frenzy of European football it could hardly be otherwise.

If his legs can stand the pace, and rumours abound of a hampering injury, Matthaus might possibly succeed in his ambition to overtake Beckenbauer’s record 103 caps for West Germany. Matthaus is only 20 short.

“Everyone expects us to be the favourite in the next World Cup,” he says. “But history shows that big teams have problems with little teams. Look at Cameroon and Argentina, England and Egypt.”

Matthaus can contemplate retirement, but only from a safe distance. The day when he moves into Kitzbuhel, in a luxury apartment with the Beckenbauers as near neighbours, as yet holds no allure.

As Klinsmann says: “Whatever he says about football just being a hobby, Lothar simply lives for the game.”

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

27

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Jean-Pierre PAPIN

1991

Top of the world…Papin

Man of the world

J

ean-Pierre Papin of Marseille and France is your choice as World Player of the Year in a first awards French clean sweep.

Papin scored 25 per cent of the vote – in the ten years of the awards only five players have achieved better. Also, Papin is the first non-Italy based player to win the award. Papin’s consistency through the year has been marked at domestic, international club, and national team level. He was a league champion and the top goalscorer in France, a European Cup runner-up and has been a key member of the French national team which qualified before any other country for the 1992 European Championships in Sweden.

Runner-up to Papin was Robert Prosinecki and just behind him, in third place, fellow Yugoslav Darko Pancev.

They owe their high ratings to Red Star Belgrade’s European Cup triumph. Who knows, they might have finished even higher had Red Star played the final in the style which took them that far?

Mark Hughes is the top British player, thanks to his high international profile with Manchester United in the European Cup Winners’ Cup and with Wales in European Championship qualifying.

Last year’s winner, Lothar Matthaus, is the top Italian-based player, in fourth, followed by Gianluca Vialli of Sampdoria and Fiorentina’s Gabriel Batistuta – who joined the Italian club after scoring the goals which lifted Argentina to the South American Championship this year.

28

ICONIC TEAMS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Captain fantastic…

Marseille’s Papin

1991 JEAN-PIERRE PAPIN Back to Papin, and there is something about the letter “P” when French football is the topic. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Roger Piantoni, inside-left of Reims and the French side placed third in the 1958 World Cup, was one of the finest all-round forwards in Europe.

Some 20 years later and Michel Platini was king of football in both France and Europe. For several years he was probably superior in his overall contribution to Diego Maradona. Platini was a consistent winner throughout his career whereas Maradona had, remarkably, won nothing of value before the 1986 World Cup. Now, after all those fond memories of Piantoni and Platini, French fans are basking in the reflected glory of Marseille’s captain and top scorer, Papin.

Papin, like his predecessors, is more than a footballer. He is a national hero whose fame, character and influence transcend the football pitch.

At Marseille, at the heart of the multi-million pound football collection being pieced together by president Bernard Tapie, Papin is a figurehead, a spokesman, a leader. A captain on and off the pitch.

scored 120 goals in two years with the renowned INF Vichy youth teams and then, on being signed by second division Valenciennes, earned promotion to the first team and was their 15-goal leading scorer in 1983-84.

Those goals earned him both selection for the France Under-21s and a transfer to Belgian side Club Brugge, who urgently needed a deputy for injured veteran Willy Wellens. Papin’s marksmanship took Brugge to the cup, and earned five goals in the UEFA Cup including a hat-trick against Boavista. He was not, however, settled in Belgium.

Papin says: “The year with Brugge was the longest of my life. At first people there were laughing at me – saying I was too small. But in a funny sort of way that helped me. It made me all the more determined to succeed. That’s why I think I could do well in Italy because certainly I do not see myself as finishing my career in France.”

Papin signalled his international potential in 1984 when he collected important strikes against East Germany and Yugoslavia in the Under-21 European Championship. Indeed,

There is something about the letter “P” when French football is the topic...after all those fond memories of Piantoni and Platini, French fans are basking in the glory of Papin It was Papin in whom Tapie confided his determination to sign West Germany World Cup coach Franz Beckenbauer long before the media knew what was happening; it was Papin who led the Marseille players out on strike in protest at the French federation’s decision to suspend Tapie for a year as punishment for attacks on referees and other club presidents; it was Papin who backed up the strike threat by insisting he would play abroad if he could not play for his beloved Marseille.

Right through his career the wiry little Frenchman has set his eye on one goal or another. That has been Papin’s hallmark ever since his early days. He

Loyalty…Bernard Tapie and Jean-Pierre Papin

Papin scored twice in the 7-0 thrashing of the Slavs in November 1985 which qualified France for the quarter-finals.

Senior recognition from national coach Henri Michel could not long be delayed.

Papin duly made his senior France debut in a 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland and he went on to become a key figure in the French side which finished third at the 1986 World Cup. Papin scored one of the goals in the 4-2 defeat of Belgium in that third place play-off. Then, at the insistence of his wife who wanted to finish her studies, Papin returned to France.

Monaco appeared to have him signed and sealed but were then pipped on the post by Marseille. Now he is club captain, considered France’s No.1 footballer and now top of World Soccer’s charts.

In 1988-89 Papin was not only the league’s 22-goal top scorer but grabbed a hat-trick in Marseille’s cup final defeat of Monaco. He was top scorer again in 1989-90, with 30 goals (including three hat-tricks) and completed his third successive season as top scorer with 23 more in 1990-91.

Papin has been Mr. France for several years. Now he is also Mr. World.

Keir Radnedge

Top 10 Players of 1991 Player 1) Jean-Pierre Papin 2) Robert Prosinecki 3) Darko Pancev 4) Mark Hughes 5) Lothar Matthaus 6) Gianluca Vialli 7) Gabriel Batistuta 8) Sergio Goycochea 9) Stuart Pearce 10) Gary Lineker

Club Marseille Red Star Belgrade/R. Madrid Red Star Belgrade Manchester United Internazionale Sampdoria Boca Juniors/Fiorentina Brest Nottingham Forest Tottenham Hotspur

Country France Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Wales Germany Italy Argentina Argentina England England

% of vote

25 15 13 8 6 5 4.5 4 3.5 3

France talisman…Papin

Other World Soccer Award winners 1991 France…

Les Bleus edged out Argentina and Red Star

TEAM OF THE YEAR: France Runaway…

Platini won over double the votes of nearest rival Vujadin Boskov

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Michel Platini, France

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

29

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Marco VAN BASTEN 1992

Cover-w worthy…Marco van Basten n’s amazing acrobatics

The class of ’92

M

ilan’s marksman supreme – top

scorer in Italy last term with 25 goals and leading the way again this season – topped the World Soccer poll for the second time. Marco van Basten’s previous success was in 1988.

Joining him among our trio of award-winners this year, in the magazine’s annual readers’ poll, is Manager of the Year Richard Moller Nielsen of Denmark, with Denmark, not surprisingly, your Team of the Year.

Early in the voting, Van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp were neck and neck.

But the longer the season continued, and the more steadily Van Basten kept on rattling in the goals for Milan, so the more steadily he pulled away.

Denmark’s remarkable year has been reflected in the player poll with third place gained by Manchester United’s Peter Schmeichel.

The blond goalkeeper had enjoyed a fine season in English domestic competition, made a jittery start to the European finals, then ended up a hero with some superb saves in the semi-final against the Netherlands and then in the final against Germany.

30

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Milan master… on the volley

1992 MARCO VAN BASTEN

Top 10 Players of 1992 Player 1) Marco van Basten 2) Dennis Bergkamp 3) Peter Schmeichel 4) Thomas Hassler 5) Brian Laudrup 6) Ronald Koeman 7) Ally McCoist 8) Frank Rijkaard 9) Rai 10) Tomas Brolin

Club Milan Ajax Manchester United Roma Fiorentina Barcelona Rangers Milan Sao Paulo Parma

Country % of vote Netherlands 18.32 Netherlands 13.74 Denmark 11.45 Germany 7.65 Denmark 7.61 Netherlands 4.58 Scotland 3.84 Netherlands 3.80 Brazil 3.10 Sweden 2.30

Deadly Dutchman…Van Basten edged out team-mate Bergkamp

Terrific trident…Van Basten with Dutch compatriots Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard

Only eight British players collected a significant number of voting nominations. The highest-placed is striker Ally McCoist of Rangers and Scotland in seventh. As for Englishmen,

Other World Soccer Award winners 1992 Glorious Danes…

Euro ’92 champs

match-winner, Ronald Koeman, was sixth while his coach, Johan Cruyff, finished runner-up in the Manager of the Year poll to Moller Nielsen.

It’s true that Moller Nielsen continues

The more steadily Van Basten kept on rattling in the goals for Milan, so the more steadily he pulled away only Gary Lineker and Chris Waddle – both now out of the international scene – collected support.

Barcelona’s Champions’ Cup

Goal king…he scored 25 Serie A goals last season

to arouse some controversy in Denmark – particularly after their poor World Cup opening. But he earned his accolade, of course, for nervelessly steering his team, late substitutes for Yugoslavia, to an astounding victory in the European Championship.

Denmark’s success in the Team poll was no surprise. But they only narrowly pipped Milan to the title.

The Italian champions may well consider that, over the year, their long, unbeaten run will be considered a more worthy achievement in many quarters than the Danes’ five-game explosion against all the odds inside three summer weeks.

Again, there were no British representatives among the top three.

Keir Radnedge

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Denmark Moller Nielsen…the Dane finished ahead of Johan Cruyff and Fabio Capello

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Richard Moller Nielsen, Denmark

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

31

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

“A lot of players win the World Cup and immediately retire from their national team… but I can’t envisage doing that.

I’m a very competitive individual.

I expect to be in England for the finals of the next European Championship in 1996”

M

1992 MARCO VAN BASTEN

arco van Basten is on top of everybody’s world.

World Soccer’s readers voted him World Footballer of the Year: Milan president Silvio Berlusconi has tied him to a new contract which will keep Van Basten at the San Siro until 1996 and reward him with a basic £1.2 million a year; he is top of the Italian league with Milan; and he is the leading scorer both in Italy and in the Champions’ Cup. But what makes Van Basten even more remarkable is his apparently limitless ambition.

At 28, many players who have earned only a fraction of the £20 million which has gone Van Basten’s way are thinking of reducing their commitments. Van Basten, however, still thinks of the achievements around the comer.

He says: “It would be wonderful to win the World Cup in the United States in 1994.

England are our big rivals in the qualifying competition. But I think we will qualify. In the finals our coach will be Johan Cruyff and that, for me, would be a dream come true. He was my original tutor at Ajax and I consider him one of the best coaches in the world. He is also my best friend in football and it would be wonderful to win the World Cup with him.

“A lot of players win the World Cup and immediately retire from their national team.

A lot of the Germans did that in Italy in 1990. But I can’t envisage doing that.

I’m a very competitive individual. I expect to be in England for the finals of the next European Championship in 1996.”

Van Basten admits the rigours of being a centre-forward are not always to his liking.

He says: “If every defender who marks me gave me the same sort of battering as Jurgen Kohler (Juventus and Germany) then I would have retired into midfield years ago. Pietro Vierchowod of Sampdoria is another of those defenders who gives me hell. But if I ever get depressed I think of Pele. He was the greatest player I’ve ever known and he always played in attack. If it was good enough for him, then it’s good enough for me.”

Van Basten is, indeed, the new king of football – inheritor of a crown which has been passed from one wonderful footballer to another in his 28-year lifetime. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the world No.1 was Real Madrid’s Alfredo Di Stefano. Next came Pele, Cruyff and Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer.

Briefly, the world game was under the reign of Argentina’s Mario Kempes. Then along came Michel Platini of France, followed – in all his grief and glory – by Diego Maradona.

Why

Now the mantle has fallen on a lean and hungry centre-forward who is serving up performances of a style and execution unmatched by anyone else in the game.

The evidence was clearly provided the very week Van Basten was voted World Player of the Year, taking the form of the four marvellous goals he cracked home for Milan against Gothenburg in the Champions League.

At a time when football fitness and tactical refinements have reached a zenith, Van Basten’s achievements defy all logic. But even he is not always guaranteed success.

Looking back at the European Championship finals last summer, when the Netherlands lost on penalties to Denmark in the semi-finals, he says: “I played some of the best football of my life in those finals but it’s goals that count.

“I didn’t score in the finals so I had the whole world on top of me – particularly after I missed the vital penalty against Denmark.

“Yet I still believe we were the best side in Sweden. No other team played football the way we did. Our biggest mistake was in having a big celebration after we beat Germany in the group match. For several days after that game our training camp was like a big party. Playing against Denmark didn’t seem to be that important. And we paid the penalty. I felt ill for days after the tournament because of what happened. I’d never felt like that before.

“Probably because of that I’m all the more determined to win the Champions’ Cup again with Milan and to win the World Cup.” Van Basten is world famous for his football.

His private life he protects. He is the only one of Milan’s three Dutchmen still with the partner he brought to Italy and he and Liesbeth have two daughters.

At first they lived in a luxury apartment in the centre of Milan. Then Van Basten, very much the thinking man’s footballer, realised that this was too restrictive for his family – particularly when he was away so much of the time. So he moved them out to the satellite town, Milano 3.

Van Basten, too, is happier there. He likes the nearby countryside and the open air life.

Perhaps that’s why Van Basten, when he’s not playing football, enjoys golf so much.

He is one of Dutch football’s best golfers but he harbours no illusions that he might have made a living at the sport. His original ambition was to be a top gymnast. As a youngster he never dreamed of becoming a professional footballer.

Then, along came Cruyff. He saw his own leadership qualities reflected in Van Basten

and, at just 22, the old Cruyff appointed the “new Cruyff” as Ajax captain. In 1987 he not only collected the European Cup Winners’ Cup after Ajax’s victory over Lokomotive Leipzig in the final, it was Van Basten who scored the decisive goal.

A few weeks later Ajax could hold him no longer: after 128 goals in as many games Van Basten was sold to Milan for £1.5 million. The price looks ridiculous now.

But at the time Van Basten was seen as very much the junior partner at Milan alongside their other new Dutchman, Ruud Gullit. Indeed, in his first season in Italy injury restricted him to only 11 games and his three goals were meagre contribution indeed to Milan’s championship success.

Thus it was hardly any wonder that Netherlands manager Rinus Michels was not ready to rely on him to shoot goals for the Dutch in their opening match of the 1988 European Championship finals against the Soviet Union in Germany.

Netherlands lost 1-0 and Van Basten appeared only as a second-half substitute. He was bitterly disappointed. He even considered walking out on the squad until Cruyff arrived to advise patience. Cruyff was proved absolutely right. Next time out, against England, Van Basten started the match and duly converted the hat-trick which all but decided the group.

In the semi-final Van Basten scored the late, decisive winner against West Germany and in the final, in Munich, he scored with a wonderful volley in the 2-0 defeat of the Soviet Union.

Van Basten says: “That day a dream came true. Even though I say it myself, it was a marvellous goal. Unrepeatable. I can still hardly believe it.”

No wonder Netherlands won the European final. No wonder Van Basten was voted World Footballer of the Year. No wonder he was voted European Footballer of the Year. No wonder rumours abounded that Cruyff wanted him for Barcelona. No wonder that Berlusconi soon had Van Basten tied to a new contract.

Berlusconi knew exactly what he was doing.

The multi-million contract appeared a bargain when, a year later, Van Basten scored two typically graceful goals in Milan’s 4-0 rout of Steaua Bucharest in the Champions’ Cup final and collected a winner’s medal again in 1990.

Last season Van Basten was the Italian League’s top scorer with 25 goals and he is heading for a repeat this term as well, as Milan stride out ahead of all competition in both Italy and Europe.

Marco van Basten is in a class of his own.

Van Basten

Words: Keir Radnedge

can’t stop winning PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Roberto BAGGIO

1993

New-look cover…on the nowrecognisable white background

Mercurial Italian takes the plaudits

R

oberto Baggio is your World Player of the Year, Alex Ferguson of Manchester United is your World Manager of the Year and Parma, holders of the European Cup Winners’ Cup, are your World Team of the Year.

A well-deserving trio led by a footballer in Baggio who owes his accolade to his inspirational – and goal-den – contribution to Italy’s World Cup qualification and Juventus’ UEFA Cup success. He was the winner in World Soccer’s poll – maintaining the tradition of calcio’s domination of the prize.

Baggio’s career has been one long success, though not everyone has been confident his natural talent would shine through.

He made his name in the top flight with Fiorentina and his transfer, in the summer of 1990, provoked riots in Florence which demanded shield and baton protection for the club offices and members of the board.

Baggio had been as much a hero – perhaps even more of a hero – as Giancarlo Antognoni a decade earlier.

But the Florentine fans felt betrayed because the club had sold him as soon as they had lost to Juventus

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Talisman…

Baggio on duty for Italy

1993 ROBERTO BAGGIO

Top 10 Players of 1993

Key men…

Baggio with strike partner Gianluca Vialli

in the UEFA Cup final that spring.

Baggio apologised to the fans at an emotional press conference. Despite earlier promises of loyalty, he could not turn down – and the fans knew it – the golden multi-million offer which had come his way from Turin.

In the World Cup in the summer of 1990, Baggio established himself ahead of Gianluca Vialli as the preeminent Italian talent, partly thanks to a marvellous solo goal against Czechoslovakia before things started to go sour. Baggio’s one stroke of ill luck was to arrive at Juventus with the club in transition. The boardroom was changing, so was the team, and the financial powerbase. As the Italian economy went into recession, so FIAT could no longer afford quite the same money to rebuild the team. A lot of money was spent still, out on ill-fitted players.

Player 1) Roberto Baggio 2) Dennis Bergkamp 3) Ruud Gullit 4) Romario 5) Faustino Asprilla 6) Ryan Giggs 7) Eric Cantona 8) Frank Rijkaard 9) Michael Laudrup 10) Rai

name, a great history and a hunger for success which only the English league title would ever really satisfy. More than 25 years had passed since United had last finished on top of the table.

Ferguson worked hard, spent heavily, kept his cool and was duly rewarded at the end of last season.

United’s success transcended the domestic football world. News spread around the globe and brought a bright new lustre back to the game in England.

Ferguson has not been able to capitalise on the league success in Europe this season. It takes a little extra something to win a continental prize – that little extra something possessed by Italy’s Parma.

Their victory in the Cup Winners’ Cup was remarkable because, less than a decade ago, Parma were in the Italian third division.

Club Juventus Internazionale Sampdoria Barcelona Parma Manchester United Manchester United Ajax Barcelona PSG

Country % of vote Italy 13.5 Netherlands 11 Netherlands 9 Brazil 7.5 Colombia 7 Wales 6.5 France 6 Netherlands 5.5 Denmark 5.25 Brazil 5

Unlucky…Bergkamp finished runner-up for the second year in a row

Other World Soccer Award winners 1993 Cup Winners’ Cup winners…Parma’s Tomas Brolin in action in the final

Baggio’s career has been one long success, though not everyone has been confident his natural talent would shine through Only this past year have Juventus begun to look like a club regaining confidence and strength. Much of that is due to Baggio’s attacking leadership.

His class has shone through at domestic and international level. That is why he has become only the second Italian – after Paolo Rossi – to win the World Soccer World Player of the Year award.

As for Alex Ferguson, his victory represents a prize not only for his own perseverance under enormous pressure, but the massive following Manchester United possess around the world. Ferguson had been a success in his own right in Scotland, winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup with Aberdeen and managing his country at the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico.

But Manchester United represented perhaps the ultimate challenge in British club football: the club with a magical

They were brought up into the top-flight sunshine thanks to the foundation work laid by Arrigo Sacchi later of Milan, now of Italy – and Nevio Scala is a more-than-worthy successor as coach.

Scala has developed a well-disciplined side capable of striking for success thanks to the cream topping provided by the likes of Colombia’s Faustino Asprilla and Sweden’s Tomas Brolin.

That Parma should now be laying a serious challenge to Milan’s hegemony in the Italian championship stakes is no surprise. The likes of Verona and Cagliari have proved, over the years, that even the greatest giants can be caught off guard.

That is why, after all, Parma are where they are now – on top of the World Soccer world…

Keir Radnedge

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Parma Manager prize…

Alex Ferguson just edged out Parma’s coach Nevio Scala and Norway’s Egil Olsen

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Alex Ferguson, Manchester United

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Paolo MALDINI

1994

History…Paolo Maldini is the firstever defender to win the award

Masterful Maldini wins the crown

P

aolo Maldini, Carlos Alberto Parreira and the Milan squad all set records by topping the 1994 World Soccer readership awards.

Maldini, Player of the Year, is the first defender to lead the voting in the 13 years the awards have been held by World Soccer. Parreira, Manager of the Year, is the first South American to win that category. And Milan, Team of the Year, are the first club to take that award twice.

Maldini beat his international team-mate, Roberto Baggio, to first place by almost four per cent of the total votes cast.

Baggio, who gained more votes in second place than he did when he won the 1993 poll, has the consolation of knowing that an Italian-based player finished in first place for the 12th time in 13 years. In 1991 Jean-Pierre Papin, then of Marseille, was the only man to break that grip.

At 26, Maldini still has plenty of time to improve an already excellent record.

He has helped Italy to third place and then to second in two World Cups, in addition to amassing a large haul of medals with his club.

As the son of an international defender, Cesare Maldini – who

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Dynasty…Paolo is continuing the Maldini tradition at Milan

1994 PAOLO MALDINI

Top 10 Players of 1994 Player 1) Paolo Maldini 2) Roberto Baggio 3) Romario 4) Gheorghe Hagi 5) Hristo Stoichkov 6) Franco Baresi 7=) Eric Cantona 7=) Jurgen Klinsmann 9) Tomas Brolin 10) Gabriel Batistuta

Club Milan Juventus Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona Milan Manchester United Tottenham Hotspur Parma Fiorentina

Country Italy Italy Brazil Romania Bulgaria Italy France Germany Sweden Argentina

% of vote

27.36 23.45 14.55 7.41 4.98 2.69 2.42 2.42 2.29 1.07

USA ’94…Maldini was a real leader during Italy’s march to the final

captained Milan in their 1963 European Cup victory over Benfica, and is now the Under-21 national manager – Maldini Junior had an impeccable pedigree.

He has added his own brilliance to that distinction, ever since making his club debut as a 16-year-old. His international debut came when he was 19, and he has gone on to add more than 60 caps, as central defender, sweeper, or – despite being naturally right-footed – at left-back.

Carlos Alberto Parreira was a member of Brazil’s coaching staff at the 1970 World Cup, when their winning squad were captained by Carlos Alberto Torres – no relation – and managed by Mario Zagalo.

if any were needed, that Silvio Berlusconi’s often controversial methods can succeed at the highest levels of club performance.

Since Berlusconi injected a “mere” £20 million into the club in 1986, averting a threat of bankruptcy, trophy has followed trophy. Berlusconi, the media magnate who went on to become Prime Minister of Italy, made the club part of his business empire – not without taints of unfair dealing along the way.

Despite that, Milan have gone on drawing huge crowds, paying huge salaries and transfer fees, and becoming more and more dominant.

The success in the latest World Soccer

Top two…Maldini and Baggio in action for the Azzurri

Other World Soccer Award winners 1994 Daniele Massaro…

Milan’s two-goal hero in the European Cup final victory

Paolo Maldini is the first defender to lead the voting in the13 years the awards have been held by World Soccer Parreira coached Kuwait in the 1982 finals and did the same with the United Arab Emirates in 1990 before winning this year with another Brazilian outfit, in his second spell in charge. And Zagalo was on his coaching staff this time around.

Brazil’s success at USA ’94 earned Parreira enough votes for him to finish first in our poll, ahead of Milan’s Fabio Capello and Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson, who was Manager of the Year last time.

Now, at 51, Carlos Alberto has taken his tactical know-how to Spain, having joined Valencia in the summer on the expiry of his contract with Brazil.

Milan were Team of the Year in 1989, second in 1990 and 1992, and fourth last time.

Their latest success is further proof,

vote was achieved by a team who scored only 36 goals in 34 Serie A games last season, but still finished three points clear at the top, and slaughtered Barcelona 4-0 in the European Cup final with a display that matched any in the competition’s history.

Brazil, second in the Team category, were the first World Cup winners not to win the award in a World Cup year since 1982, when Italy took the global title in Spain but finished second in the World Soccer poll...to Brazil.

Manchester United, FA Cup and Premiership winners in England, were third, but there were surprisingly few votes for Arsenal and Internazionale, who won the other two European competitions. Neither club finished in the top ten.

Keir Radnedge & Gavin Hamilton

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Milan World Cup winner…

Parreira

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Carlos Alberto Parreira, Brazil

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

37

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Gianluca VIALLI

1995

Streak…Gianluca Vialli is the 13th Italian-based d player to win the award in14 years

Viva Vialli

G

ianluca Vialli, born on July 9, 1964, cost Juventus £12 million (for ten days a world record) when signed from Sampdoria after their Champions’ Cup final defeat by Barcelona in 1992.

After injury problems he re-emerged at his very best last season to inspire Juve’s title success, despite a row with national coach Arrigo Sacchi.

Vialli was born in Cremona and played for Cremonese until Sampdoria spotted his potential in 1984 and paid £1.8 million for his fledgling talent. He was Sampdoria’s leading league marksman for four years in a row, and Italy’s top scorer with 19 goals in 1990-91.

In 1986 he was an outstanding member of the Italian team who beat holders England to reach the final of the European Under-21 Championship. Italy lost to Spain in the final and the Genoa-based club’s president Paolo Mantovani wondered whether the sale of Vialli would raise money to strengthen the rest of the team. Such was local opposition to the prospect of Vialli’s move to Milan that Mantovani changed his mind.

In 1985 Vialli made his senior international debut as a substitute against Poland in Chorzow. He played in the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

On target…

Vialli in the Champions League

1995 GIANLUCA VIALLI

Top 10 Players of 1995 Player 1) Gianluca Vialli 2) Alessandro Del Piero 3) Jurgen Klinsmann 4) Paolo Maldini 5=) George Weah 5=) Tony Yeboah 7) Gianfranco Zola 8) Michael Laudrup 9) Fabrizio Ravanelli 10) Jari Litmanen

Club Juventus Juventus Bayern Munich Milan Milan Leeds United Parma Real Madrid Juventus Ajax

Country Italy Italy Germany Italy Liberia Ghana Italy Denmark Italy Finland

% of vote

18.26 8.56 7.93 5.79 5.66 5.66 4.91 4.53 3.77 2.39

Journey…starring for Sampdoria as a youngster back in1984

but was a disappointment at Italia ’90.

His closest football confidant has been veteran Yugoslav coach Vujadin Boskov, long Vialli’s boss at Sampdoria.

Boskov once described Vialli in these terms: “He is equally at home on the right, in the centre or on the left of attack. He defends like a tiger, attacks like a lion and is sharper than a puma – whether he’s got the ball or not. Apart

or team-mate can always talk to him, discuss things with him, advise him, help him. A great, great professional.”

However, the world’s finest player may not be seen in the 1996 European Championship. Vialli has been at odds with Italy’s manager, Arrigo Sacchi, for some time, and the dispute could affect his prospects of appearing in England next summer.

The world’s finest player may not be seen in the1996 European Championship. Vialli has been at odds with Italy’s manager, Arrigo Sacchi, for some time from that he is very wiry and strong.

“He has all these gifts yet he is also extremely personable. A coach

Top scorer…the Juve striker hit17 Serie A goals last season

Despite this, Vialli was a clear winner in the 14th poll of readers organised by World Soccer. He took 18.26 per cent of the votes cast for Player of the Year, almost ten per cent ahead of Alessandro Del Piero, his team-mate with Juve and Italy.

Jurgen Klinsmann, back in Germany with Bayern Munich, was not forgotten

by England-based readers. He picked up sufficient votes to finish third, ahead of last year’s winner, Paolo Maldini of Milan.

Two African strikers, George Weah and Tony Yeboah, were joint-fifth among a massive poll: 69 players were nominated in total.

Italians played their customary dominant role in the voting for the three categories, but the other two winners are Dutch – European and Dutch champions Ajax and their manager, Louis van Gaal.

Ajax took exactly half the club votes, just one per cent fewer than the record set by Milan in 1989, and Van Gaal was 23 per cent in front of Juventus coach, Marcello Lippi.

Keir Radnedge & Gavin Hamilton

Mercurial talent…runner-up Alessandro Del Piero has formed a lethal attack alongside Gianluca Vialli and Fabrizio Ravanelli

Other World Soccer Award winners 1995 Champions League winner…

Ajax’s Jari Litmanen finished10th in the voting

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Ajax Van Gaal…the Ajax coach made it a Dutch double in the Manager and Team categories

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Louis van Gaal, Ajax

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

39

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

RONALDO

1996

Barca boy…Ronaldo

Starlet on top of the world

H

e will not be 21 until September, but according to many World Soccer readers he has already become the greatest player in the world. Ronaldo, who plays for Barcelona and Brazil, was a narrow winner in our 16th annual poll to find the top man.

He was followed in the voting by England’s Alan Shearer (leading scorer at Euro ’96) and George Weah of Liberia, who plays his club football with Milan.

Nigeria, winners of the Olympic Games soccer tournament in the United States, took the team award. The flood of votes for German coach Berti Vogts ensured that he would beat all the other managers to the finishing line.

The top ten players represented nine countries, with Germany having two in Matthias Sammer and Jurgen Klinsmann, who were among their stars in the winning European Championship campaign during the summer.

Ronaldo is the youngest-ever winner, and only the second unconnected with Italy either through club or country.

As he becomes the latest player to win the World Soccer award, he says: “I want to be soccer’s good boy.

I’m flattered that people think I’m good, but I’m only just getting started. I have

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Unstoppable…

Ronaldo goes on another run

1996 RONALDO a lot to learn, and I don’t want anything to stop me from learning it.”

Ronaldo came up the traditional Brazilian way, playing in the streets and on waste ground in the Bento Ribeiro area of Rio. The story goes that he could not afford the bus fare for a trial with Flamengo – and they let him go rather than give him the coppers he needed.

He went to Sao Cristavao, a small second division club, was spotted by 1970 World Cup hero Jairzinho, and sold to Cruzeiro of Belo Horizonte. After a spell in the youth team he won a senior place and scored 54 goals in 54 games.

PSV headed the queue of European clubs anxious to sign him, and duly did so, but he was destined for a bigger audience than Eindhoven could provide.

After two seasons and 30 goals, in spite of a serious knee injury, he was on his way to Barca, signed by the Catalans this year for a fee of $20 million. That figure is second only to the £15m that took Shearer from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United, and it may well have been repaid by now. If not, it soon will be.

Ronaldo is already an experienced international, with 13 caps rewarding his speed, effortless control and finishing skills. His amazing goal for Barca against Compostela in October will surely rank with the most-shown goal in TV history by the time his career is over.

Keir Radnedge, Gavin Hamilton & David Prole

“He’s got all it takes to be a dignified successor to Pele. He is already the best centre-forward in the world and he’s got so much natural talent he can only get better. I’m convinced he’s a footballer who’s going to rewrite the history books.”

Brazil coach Mario Zagallo “An exquisite footballer who lives to score goals. It doesn’t matter how you mark Ronaldo, it’s impossible to intimidate him.

He has great confidence in his own ability and all the qualities to become a worldbeater. But he’s only just starting and it doesn’t do him any favours comparing him to me all the time.”

Pele

Top 10 Players of 1996 Player 1) Ronaldo 2) Alan Shearer 3) George Weah 4) Matthias Sammer 5) Jurgen Klinsmann 6) Gabriel Batistuta 7) Eric Cantona 8) Nwankwo Kanu 9) Jari Litmanen 10) Gianluca Vialli

Club PSV/Barcelona Blackburn/Newcastle Milan Borussia Dortmund Bayern Munich Fiorentina Manchester United Ajax/Internazionale Ajax Juventus/Chelsea

Country Brazil England Liberia Germany Germany Argentina France Nigeria Finland Italy

% of vote

16.56 14.42 14.03 10.13 8.18 7.01 4.67 2.72 2.14 0.94

“Unique, magic, the best goalscorer in the world, no argument. It’s a genuine pleasure to play alongside him.”

Barca and Brazil team-mate Giovanni “He’s an extraordinary forward. He deserves everything he gets. Barcelona have made one of their best signings ever, on a par with Maradona and Cruyff.”

Brazil and PSG full-back Leonardo “He’s like a steamroller and a computergenerated Ferrari engine programmed to score. They say he’s Brazilian, but he’s so calculating, so overwhelmingly powerful and so capable of winning games on his own, he must be a Martian.”

Valencia coach Jorge Valdano

World-record transfer…Shearer finished second just behind Ronaldo

Other World Soccer Award winners 1996

“I’m flattered that people think I’m good… but I’m only just getting started” RONALDOMANIA!

“You can go anywhere you like in the world, and you won’t find a player who can score goals like Ronaldo. He’s only 20 but can anybody, anywhere, show me a better player? He’s simply sensational.”

Barcelona coach Bobby Robson “That was the most difficult marking job I’ve done in my life. I feel like I’ve just played five games.”

Tenerife defender Cesar Gomez after 90 minutes with Ronaldo

“What’s most impressive is his ability to pick the ball up in no-man’s land, where there is simply nothing on, and turn that into a goalscoring situation all on his own.”

Valencia keeper Andoni Zubizarreta “All the praise is exaggerated. He’s playing extremely well at the moment, but it’ll be years before he reaches the level of a Pele or Di Stefano.”

Johan Cruyff “There is nobody else in the Spanish League on the same planet.”

Deportivo coachJohn Toshack “The only player capable of beating my Spanish record of 38 goals in one season.

He’s up there with Pele, Maradona, Di Stefano and Kubala. When he gets the ball you can just tell from the look on his face he’s going to score – he’s got that bare-faced cheek of youth.”

Mexico legend Hugo Sanchez, five-times top scorer in Spain

Boy wonder…celebrating for Brazil

Quotes compiled byJeff King in Barcelona

Olympic gold medallists…the Super Eagles

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Nigeria Runaway winner…Vogts topped the poll with over 27 per cent of the vote

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Berti Vogts, Germany

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

RONALDO

1997

No turning back…Ronaldo is only looking forward

Back-to-back awards for phenomenon

B

razil 1-2 Germany could be the result of next year’s World Cup final, and it’s already the result of the World Soccer poll for Player, Manager and Team of the Year.

Ronaldo, formerly of Barcelona and now Internazionale and Brazil, the world’s outstanding individual player, retained the title he won last year, but with a much larger share of the vote. He polled 27 per cent, compared with 17 a year ago.

Before Inter’s derby against rivals Milan, Ronaldo was presented with the Golden Boot as the 1996-97 top marksman in European league football – and he is favourite to collect the European Footballer of the Year trophy and then perhaps retain the FIFA World Footballer award. A remarkable prospect for a young man whose season started so badly amid the controversy over his departure from Barcelona.

Aside of personal accolades, he also won plenty of team silverware this year. Before leaving the Nou Camp he won the Copa del Rey and European Cup Winners’ Cup, while the summer saw him win the Copa America (and Best Player award) as Brazil triumphed in Bolivia.

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Key man… indisputably Brazil’s No.1 star

1997 RONALDO

Top 10 Players of 1997 Player 1) Ronaldo 2) Dennis Bergkamp 3) Gianfranco Zola 4) Roberto Carlos 5) Juninho 6) Jose Luis Chilavert 7=) Zinedine Zidane 7=) Youri Djorkaeff 9) Raul 10) Predrag Mijatovic

Club Barcelona/Inter Arsenal Chelsea Real Madrid Middlesbrough/A. Madrid Velez Sarsfield Juventus Internazionale Real Madrid Real Madrid

Country % of vote Brazil 27.24 Netherlands 12.29 Italy 6.97 Brazil 5.64 Brazil 4.65 Paraguay 3.98 France 3.65 France 3.65 Spain 2.99 Yugoslavia 2.65

Lightning-quick…Ronaldo in action for Internazionale following his big summer move

Four other players with Spanish clubs figured in the top ten, but the other two awards went to Germans.

Ottmar Hitzfeld, who led Borussia Dortmund to victory in the Champions League, was voted Manager of the Year, and his club took the Team title.

Hitzfeld only just made it in a desperately close finish with three rivals – England’s Glenn Hoddle and Marcello Lippi of Juventus tied for second place, and Alex Ferguson of Manchester United was a fraction behind in fourth.

Aarau and Grasshopper. As a player, Hitzfeld played with mixed success in Switzerland and West Germany, earning eight caps for the West German amateur national side in 1972.

Borussia only just scraped home in the Team award, ahead of Juventus, the team they beat in the European Cup final. Schalke, who took the UEFA Cup, finished third. Jamaica, surprise qualifiers for the World Cup, took tenth place in the team category.

The return from Italy of key German

Ronaldo is the fourth player to win the award twice in its16-year history, following Michel Platini, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten, and only the second to win it back-to-back Hitzfeld, who is now technical director at Borussia Dortmund, masterminded Dortmund’s 1997 Champions League triumph after leading them to successive Bundesliga titles in 1995 and 1996. He took over as coach at Dortmund in 1991 after success in Switzerland with SC Zug,

Copa America winner…kissing the trophy

internationals has been the catalyst for Dortmund’s success in recent years.

Andy Moller, Matthias Sammer, Jurgen Kohler, Steffen Reuter and Karl-Heinz Riedle all enjoyed much more success in Dortmund than they had done in Serie A. Along with youngsters such as Lars Ricken and Heiko Herrlich, they helped Dortmund win their first league title for 32 years (their first Bundesliga crown) in 1995. That was followed by another title in 1996 and the Champions League, won in Munich last May. Ronaldo is the fourth player to win the award twice in its 16-year history, following Michel Platini, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten, and only the second to win it back-to-back.

The usual worldwide poll – voters came from 53 countries – chose four British managers in the top ten, plus the foreign managers of two English clubs.

But only seven British players were nominated, and received a total poll share of less than two per cent.

David Prole

Runaway winner…Ronaldo finished well clear of the field

Other World Soccer Award winners 1997 Champions League winners…

Dortmund’s Paul Lambert

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Borussia Dortmund Close…Hitzfeld beat Hoddle and Lippi by the narrowest of margins – just 0.34 per cent

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Ottmar Hitzfeld, Borussia Dortmund

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

The world at his feett

Interview: Keir Radnedge

What went wrong at Barcelona?

For seven months I was trying to renew the contract they had offered me. Let’s be honest: they came to me with it, it wasn’t the other way round. I hadn’t demanded anything of them. Of course I was happy with the idea but it came from the club in the first place. But what happened then was that they kept postponing meetings we had arranged.

Eventually it got to the stage when it wasn’t so easy for me. I had commitments to go and play for Brazil at the Copa America. It was very frustrating and upsetting – and they had started the process. When I was away at the Copa my agents remained in Barcelona, trying to sort things out, and they had a meeting with the club. I understand that everything went well and when they broke for lunch everyone was very happy with what was agreed. But over lunch I understand that Bruguera, one of the club’s lawyers, said to Josep Lluis Nunez, the president: “Don’t you think you are rushing this – it’s a huge amount of money to be paying one person every year for a guaranteed ten years?” So everything went back on hold. Yet this was after a season in which I had won the FIFA World Player award, I had been top scorer in the league and won the Golden Shoe, and we had won the European Cup Winners’ Cup and also qualified to play in the Champions League. They were all still arguing! So then I got worried. If this was what happened after a really successful season, what might happen after an ordinary or even a bad season? I had always told the club I wanted to stay. But I think they thought they could take advantage: that I would put my personal feelings in front of my professional interests. Barcelona are a great club with fantastic fans and terrific players.

It’s just a pity the club is so badly managed.

How will Brazil in 1998 differ from the World Cup-winning side of Brazil in 1994? he team m played in In the United States in 1994 th a certain rigid way and, of course, did d very well!

The new team, under Mario Zagallo, plays in a similar way but with a little more emphasiis on attack. I’m sure that, given the right preparationn, we can do equally well in France – and score a few more goals! As for who will score them – well, I hope, of course, that it’s me. People keep asking who I prefer to have playing alongside me as if I could choose between wonderful players such as Rivaldo, Romario, Dodo or Edmundo. Fortunately that’s not my job. I have enough to do trying to make sure I keep my place in the team. We have so many good players that none of us can ever be sure.

You knew Louis van Gaal in the Netherlands – he was coach at Ajax while you were playing for PSV. Has he been good or bad for Barcelona?

Van Gaal is an excellent coach. I would have been happy to play for him at Barcelona in the Champions League – and I’m sad that Barcelona and my old team-mates have had such disappointing results. I’m sure that, given time, Van Gaal will succeed and get the team performing the way that he wants. Whether they would have done any better with me in

And you have already spent one entire World Cup sitting on the bench...

Yes, in 1994 I was a member of the squad but I wasn’t chosen to play for even one minute. But I learned a lot. I learned, for example, all about the importance of good team-work and a good spirit. At the World Cup in the United States there was a great deal of unity among the players and, yes, friendship. The players all liked each other, personally. We were all very in tune with each other and we were all focused on

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

the team is not for mee to say – or to worry about. The fact of thee matter is that I am now with Inter and we aree still in the UEFA A Cup. You are just one of the many Brazilian players who have come to Europe in the past few years. Is that good for the players and, at the same time, is it good or bad for the national team?

It’s good from botth sides. The playerss benefit and the national teeam also benefits. There is nothing Brazilian plaayers can gain technically when they come to Europe. Absoluteely nothing.

From that point of view there’s nothin ng to talk about. But Brazilian players do gain added value when they transffer to Europe because, whereas every Brazilian player knowss how to go forward, it’s only in Europe that they learn how to defend properlyy so that they develop into all-round footballeers. They learn how to defend, how to workk , how to suff ffer f r for a result. It’s an importannt learning proccess.

winning the World Cup – and that meant the reserves as well as the playyers in the team.

Romario seems to have lost that spirit and focus in the meantime. Doesn’t it worry you that what has happened to him might happen to you one day?

Romario is a team-mate off mine in the national team and, if you look backk , you can see he has given a lot to football. I’d raather look at all the good things he has been innvolved in than the bad. There have been too many players, I’m sorry to say, who have lost their way somewhere down their career path. Bu ut it’s not mandatory – lookk at two great pllayerss such as Pele and Zico. They had wonderful caareers and they never let their professional or perrsonal standards drop.

They were – and remain – great ambassadors for the game. That’s what I want for myself.

To follow Pele is easy isn’t it – you just win the World Cup three times?

It’s a big act to follow. France, Italy, Spain and England are all outstandingg teams. Italy have never been th he luckkiest off opponents for us, rememb beriing 1982. Then there’’s Germany.

They are always there. That says everything about their quality and strength. I watched botth their qualifying games against Portugal and wass very impressed with how focused the Germanns looked. Portugal couldn’tt stay with them. Portu ugal reminnd me of Uruguay: two nations who once played great football at the World Cup but who have stood still while the world has left them behind.

Which team is the biggest danger?

Argentina could surprise a lot of people and the Africans are catching everyone else up physically and technically. But I think France will be the most dangerous opponents. They have home advantage, which counts for a lot, but, even more important than that, they have a lot of really outstanding players. I know – because I see them week in, week out in Italy: Djorkaeff, Thuram, Zidane, Deschamps and so on. But we will not go into the World Cup with any fear of losing. I don’t think we will give anyone else a chance. But if we do lose then we just pack our bags, go home and start to build all over again.

1997 RONALDO

We’ve donee it before so we know we can do it again. It might be the end of the World Cup but it wou uldn n’t be the end of the world.

If you are not the outstanding individual player at the World Cup finals, who do you think might be?

Raul of Real Madrid, Mijatovic of Real Madrid, also, and my team-mate at Inter, Djorkaeff.

None of you will be getting much holiday this summer. How do you cope with the relentless pressure of games with both club and country?

In terms of the physical aspect I need to work hard at my fitness and my game to keep feeling sharp. But, like most players, I’d rather play lots of matches than have to do a lot of training. What with the Olympic Games and Copa America I’ve been playing for two years non-stop, without a holiday. Fortunately I don’t need much motivation to keep wanting to win more cups and competitions. I don’t get tired of success! I suppose one month’s holiday would be nice. That would be enough. But there’s always some other tournament coming along so it’s not possible. It would be ideal to split up the calendar so the clubs have their time and the national teams have theirs. But that’s not possible when the clubs invest so much

mon ney in buyin ng and paying and taking care of th heir playerss. One thing which would help wou uld be to geet all the national associations to play their co ompetitive matches at the same tiime. Then you woulldn’’t have th he present situation, which the clubs consider unfair, when they lose different players at different times and not always at the same time as the clubs they are playing against.

Apart from the financial side, was coming to Italy, to play for Inter, the right decision?

Yes, I like playing in Italy. I realise not all foreign players who come here say that. But it was

I don’t want to think of moving again for a very long time. I want to make history with Inter just as I had originnally hoped to make history with Barcelo ona.

Anything else you want along the way?

Yes, I want to still be playing when that criminal tackle from behind is banned from the game. I know that it is supposed to have been banned by FIFA but there are still a lot of players who do it and referees who let them get away with it. Look at all the players who have had to stop their careers early because of injuries from this tackle. The referees need

“I’m sure that, given the right preparation, we can do equally well at France ’98 – and score a few more goals! As for who will score them – well, I hope, of course, that it’s me” a challenge I wanted since very early in my career. It’s much more difficult than Spain.

I did not realise how much harder it would be. Off the pitch I’ve had no problems. My team-mates have been very friendly and helpful. But in Spain the tactical options are different. There’s much more space for players, which makes it easier. But I’m happy here.

to be tough. They need to stick to the letter of the law. If that means a lot of free-kicks, then that’s the price of cleaning up the game. What I would really prefer would be two referees per match - one in each half of the pitch so that they could get much closer to the play and be in a much better position to get to grips with foul play.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Zinedine ZIDANE

1998

Zidane…the people’s choice

Le trreble e

F

rance duly performed the treble in the voting for the World Soccer Player, Manager and Team of the Year – but it was a treble with a difference.

Zinedine Zidane’s two goals in the World Cup final victory over Brazil shot – or rather, headed – him to a runaway win in the Player stakes, while France, overall, were clear winners of the Team award: seven of their starters in the final were nominated for the Player prize.

But although there was great support for the France coach, Aime Jacquet, he was narrowly beaten to the Manager award by yet another Frenchman: Arsene Wenger, who had taken Arsenal to a remarkable Premiership and FA Cup double in his first full season in England.

Wenger’s success in joining the managerial greats who have figured among the World Soccer winners could be some consolation for him as he faces criticism arising from his team’s recent dip in form – criticism that shows how short some memories are.

A double in your first season should earn you sufficient goodwill to tide you over a bad spell or two: what more could the man have done?

Zidane was a clear winner in front of the remarkable Liverpool teenager, Michael Owen. We expected him to do well after his

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Graceful…

Zidane in possession

1998 ZINEDINE ZIDANE

Top 10 Players of 1998 Player 1) Zinedine Zidane 2) Michael Owen 3) Ronaldo 4) Davor Suker 5) Dennis Bergkamp 6) Gabriel Batistuta 7=) Edgar Davids 7=) Marcelo Salas 9) Lilian Thuram 10) Jose Luis Chilavert

Club Juventus Liverpool Internazionale Real Madrid Arsenal Fiorentina Juventus River Plate/Lazio Parma Velez Sarsfield

Country % of vote France 23.18 England 11.39 Brazil 9.30 Croatia 6.74 Netherlands 6.04 Argentina 4.18 Netherlands 3.93 Chile 3.93 France 3.63 Paraguay 2.72

Match-winner…scoring in the World Cup final for Les Bleus

splendid World Cup, but not that well.

Second place, in his first full season as a first teamer, was something out of the ordinary.

He certainly collected a lot of votes that otherwise might have gone to Ronaldo, but the Brazilian’s dismal finale to his French adventure cost him his chance of topping the player poll for the third time in succession.

Owen, however, was the one bright star as far as the English game was

and the two English clubs in the top ten, Chelsea and Arsenal, have a strong continental flavour. Manchester United hardly figured at all, although manager Alex Ferguson was in the top ten for a sixth time.

Not that England were alone in experiencing a slump in fortunes.

Ronaldo was the only Brazilian player in the top ten, while the national team and coach Mario Zagallo rarely troubled the vote counters.

Zinedine Zidane’s two goals in the World Cup final victory over Brazil shot – or rather, headed – him to a runaway win in the Player stakes concerned. Only four other English players were nominated, and they did not include Alan Shearer, second last year. Coach Glenn Hoddle, also second a year ago, barely figured in the voting,

Trophy lift…Zizou holds aloft the World Cup

Germany’s decline was also reflected in our poll. Hardly any votes for hardly any players, just a bit of enthusiasm for Kaiserslautern and their coach, Otto Rehhagel. Borussia Dortmund and coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, winners the previous year, sank without trace this time. Another German, Jupp Heynckes, was in the coaching top ten, but with a Spanish club, Champions League winners Real Madrid.

Croatia, in existence for only five minutes compared with some other nations, had a fine World Cup and did well in our poll, too. The team finished third, extrovert coach Miroslav Blazevic was fourth, and Davor Suker – top scorer in France – was fourth as well.

But, overall, it was France virtually all the way. Rightly so, after Zinedine Zidane and his fellow countrymen had given cause for a monster street party in the Paris where Gene Kelly had sung and danced to one of George Gershwin’s greatest tunes: Z’wonderful, Z’marvellous...

David Prole

Top of the charts…Zizou was the undisputed choice as No.1

Other World Soccer Award winners 1998 No.1 team...world champions France

TEAM OF THE YEAR: France

Domestic double…

Wenger with Arsenal signing Nicolas Anelka

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Arsene Wenger, Arsenal

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

RIVALDO

1999

Rivaldo1…Beckham 0

Brazilian roasts the rest

M

anchester United’s treble-winning season prompted more than 60 per cent of voters in the annual World Soccer poll to select them as World Team of the Year and their boss, Alex Ferguson, as top man in the Manager category. But a Brazilian based in Barcelona stopped a clean sweep.

Rivaldo took the Player of the Year award by a surprisingly clear margin, polling 42 per cent of the votes (the third-biggest share of the poll in World Soccer’s awards history) and finishing nearly 16 per cent ahead of Manchester United and England’s David Beckham in what was virtually a two-man race.

Andriy Shevchenko, the Ukrainian striker doing so well in his first season with Milan, was third with nine per cent of the poll, but the rest were nowhere.

Indeed, none of last year’s first three – Zinedine Zidane, Michael Owen and Ronaldo – managed to get into the top ten this time and, although Roy Keane and Dwight Yorke finished high enough to give Manchester United three of the first five, they were a long, long way back.

Rivaldo’s poll victory was a reflection of his wonderful year with Barcelona and his performances for Brazil,

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

World Player…

Rivaldo in Champions League action v Arsenal

1999 RIVALDO

Top 10 Players of 1999 Player 1) Rivaldo 2) David Beckham 3) Andriy Shevchenko 4) Roy Keane 5) Dwight Yorke 6) Christian Vieri 7) Raul 8=) Gabriel Batistuta 8=) Nwankwo Kanu 8=) Juan Sebastian Veron

Club Barcelona Manchester United Dynamo Kiev/Milan Manchester United Manchester United Lazio/Internazionale Real Madrid Fiorentina Internazionale/Arsenal Parma/Lazio

Country % of vote Brazil 42.27 England 26.55 Ukraine 9.02 Rep. of Ireland 2.84 Trinidad & Tobago 2.06 Italy 1.55 Spain 1.29 Argentina 1.03 Nigeria 1.03 Argentina 1.03

Champions…lifting the Copa America with his Brazilian team-mates

whom he helped to win the Copa America in July.

If he maintains this form he might well emulate his compatriot Ronaldo by winning the World Soccer award twice in succession.

Beckham had been widely favoured to become the first English winner of the player category, but perhaps paid the penalty for a cash-encrusted lifestyle that offends as many as it attracts.

the Fourth of Burlington, Vermont, who put the word “grudgingly” in brackets when voting for Alex Ferguson as Manager of the Year.

No doubt many readers felt the same, but there is no denying that Ferguson, now Sir Alex, maximises the financial clout that United generate, and rarely makes a bad buy.

Following United’s triumphs in the Champions League, Premiership and FA Cup, this year’s voting brought

No.1…Rivlado celebrating his goal in the Copa America final

Other World Soccer Award winners 1999 Manchester United…

Champions League glory

Rivaldo’s poll victory was a reflection of his wonderful year with Barcelona and his performances for Brazil, whom he helped to win the Copa America in July Manchester United draw enormous crowds wherever they go, but they are widely unpopular away from their home base. This was summed up in one word by one of our readers, John P Bowles

Rivaldo…lethal left foot

Ferguson a treble of his own. He became the first manager to win our award twice, he took a record share of the poll – almost 61 per cent – and won it by the biggest margin ever.

In addition, he finished in the top ten for a record seventh time.

Milan’s Alberto Zaccheroni and Barca’s Louis van Gaal were second and third respectively, but Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger, the winner last season, slipped to 11th.

Like Ferguson, Manchester United won their category by a record margin and with a record share of the poll, and they became only the second English club to finish top. Everton were the first, having won the English league title and European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1985.

Brazil were second this year, with the United States women’s team beating Barcelona into third place on the strength of their victory in the World Cup last July.

Gavin Hamilton

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Manchester United

Knighted…

Sir Alex with runner-up Beckham prior to the final

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Alex Ferguson, Manchester United

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

“Brazil’s legendary players wore the number10 shirt – Pele, Zico, Rivelino. I have, however, no difficulty with it.

I just prefer11”

1999 RIVALDO First he was voted World Soccer’s Player of the Year. Then came the European Footballer of the Year award from France Football. Now Vitor Barbosa Ferreira, known to the world as Rivaldo, is the clear favourite to win the accolade of FIFA World Footballer of the Year.

There can be few people who would begrudge the Brazilian star his success. Over the past 12 months Rivaldo has been the most consistently outstanding individual in world football. With Barcelona, he has won successive Spanish league titles, scoring 24 goals from left midfield last season alone. At international level, his performances at the Copa America helped restore pride and confidence to Brazil after the troubling events before, during and after the1998 World Cup final.

In many ways, Rivaldo is a most unlikely hero. He lacks the pop-star looks of David Beckham, the physical presence of Gabriel Batistuta, the explosive pace of Ronaldo.

Instead, the bow-legged boy from Recife cuts a frail figure on the pitch. But the fragile frame belies an outstanding footballing brain and a steely determination born of having to make a 20km round trip to training on foot as a boy.

Last year, Rivaldo was reluctant to attend the FIFA Footballer of the Year gala in Barcelona when it emerged he would be receiving only an award as Spanish Player of the Season. Twelve months on in Brussels, things are very different.

Congratulations on being voted World Soccer’s Player of the Year for 1999. You must now have a very good chance of sweeping the board with all of this year’s awards.

My chances are good. I hope I win everything.

Such a result would be an enormous satisfaction both for me and my family, especially since it was achieved coming off the back of Brazil’s defeat in the 1998 World Cup final. But there are other prospective candidates for the FIFA award, especially David Beckham.

Why Beckham?

Because not only is he an outstanding player, but with Manchester United he has won every important title possible: the English championship, the FA Cup, the biggest European club competition – the Champions League – and most recently the World Club Cup in Tokyo.

In the past year you have helped Barcelona win the Spanish league and Brazil the Copa America. Whom would Rivaldo choose to be the World Player of the Year for 1999?

Rivaldo.

Why? Because I’m the best player. For example, I have scored more goals than Beckham. I accept though, that it is very important to win the Champions League. And this season, we at Barcelona have a very good chance of doing it.

When we were knocked out at the first-round stage last year, we had a lot of new players in the side. Now we make a very strong and compact unit. For me, Barca remain the favourites to win the Champions League.

Who will be the biggest threats to Barcelona in the Champions League?

Real Madrid and Valencia, underlining the current strength of Spanish football. But also Manchester United, Lazio and Bayern Munich.

How much influence has Barca coach Louis van Gaal had on your development into the player many consider the world’s best?

It was vital for my development that I came to play in Europe. Even before arriving at Barca, I had played very well for Deportivo La Coruna and scored 21 goals in 41 games there. Van Gaal is my present coach but he is not greatly responsible for the high level at which I’m now playing. I have worked very hard for what I’ve achieved, but coming to Barcelona was the biggest opportunity of my career.

Barcelona have always brought in big stars from abroad, who reached the top, became idols, only to have difficulties with the club and its leadership. It was the case with Maradona, Schuster, Ronaldo, Romario and Cruyff. Can something similar happen to you?

I hope not and believe all will work out well for me here, even though I have an economic problem which has to be sorted out.

What is that?

After Ronaldo left Barca and I was recruited, president Nunez made me some financial promises which up to now have not been fully

met. This the only problem I have at Barca and I trust it will at last be cleared up. I’m very fortunate to be here. I would only move from here in the event an extreme problem.

Who are the best strikers in the world?

Raul at Real Madrid, Claudio Lopez at Valencia, Christian Vieri of Internazionale and Gabriel Batistuta of Fiorentina. But for me, Ronaldo indisputably remains the best player in the world, that is when he recovers from his latest injury. I see myself as an attacking central midfielder, playing behind the strikers.

There I have more space and freedom.

What does the number 10 shirt of the Brazilian national team mean to you?

Lots of pressure and still more responsibility.

The number 10 means a huge commitment.

Brazil’s legendary players wore that shirt – Pele, Zico, Rivelino. I have, however, no difficulty with it. I just prefer 11.

Why? Because even as a young player I wore 11.

Rivaldo was and is number 11. Especially for the fans. That’s the reason I carry on wearing this number at Barcelona. Even though the number 10 was available at the start of this season and was offered to me.

Who has been your hardest opponent?

I don’t want to give any names, but German and English defenders have impressed me.

Who has had the most influence on your career up to this point?

Above all, my father. He was my first real coach but unfortunately lost his life in a car accident when I was 16. He made me a footballer, the one I remain today.

The awards that I have won this past year, I have dedicated to him.

How do you see the rest of your career?

I thank God that up to now I’ve been spared bad injuries, the ones that take away some of your speed. But I don’t think I will still be playing beyond the age of 34 or 35. My mid-30s will be the end. Until then I aim to win as many titles as I possibly can and to earn enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my days.

Rivaldo takes on the world

World Soccer’s Player of the Year talks about his amazing 12 months in an exclusive report

by Gavin Hamilton

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Luis FIGO

2000

Your choice…Luis Figo

Figo first to the prize

E

uro 2000 dominated the voting in the annual poll for World Soccer’ss Player, Team and Manager of the Year. Luis Figo, outstanding for Portugal in the summer tournament, edged out Frenchman Zinedine Zidane.

France took the Team prize, but the Manager vote was won by Dino Zoff, coach of Italy, the side beaten

by France in the final of Euro 2000.

Figo took the World Player of the Year award thanks to his performances for Portugal and, more controversially, both Barcelona and Real Madrid, whom he joined for a world-record transfer fee in July.

But it was a close run thing. Zidane, the favourite when the voting opened in October – and the inspiration behind France’s Euro 2000 triumph – paid the price for a rash of red cards for Juventus in the Italian league and Champions League during the autumn.

Ironically, Zidane may still triumph in the FIFA World Footballer of the Year vote, shortly to be announced in Rome. Polling for that award, among the world’s national coaches, took place before Zidane suffered his disciplinary problems.

But there is no doubting Figo’s worthiness for our award.

For years, he has arguably been the most underrated player in the

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Portuguese maestro…Figo

2000 LUIS FIGO

Top 10 Players of 2000 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10)

Player Luis Figo Zinedine Zidane Andriy Shevchenko Rivaldo Thierry Henry Gaizka Mendieta Francesco Totti Gabriel Batistuta Raul Alessandro Nesta

Club Barcelona/Real Madrid Juventus Milan Barcelona Arsenal Valencia Roma Fiorentina/Roma Real Madrid Lazio

Country % of vote Portugal 26.04 France 20.95 Ukraine 10.16 Brazil 4.93 France 4.77 Spain 2.77 Italy 2.31 Argentina 2.15 Spain 2.01 Italy 1.69

Controversial…Real Madrid’s new No.10

European game. His form last season for Barcelona and in helping Portugal reach the semi-finals of Euro 2000 led to his £37 million transfer to Madrid.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has no doubts about the player’s standing. Figo’s signing was the key pledge which secured the Madrid election for Perez this past summer.

winners, France. Cameroon, African and Olympic champions, failed to emulate Nigeria, who won Team of the Year after their 1996 Olympic triumph.

But they still finished second, ahead of Champions League winners Real Madrid and UEFA Cup winners Galatasaray.

The closest vote was for Manager of the Year. Dino Zoff took the prize

Usurped…Figo with last year’s winner Rivaldo

Other World Soccer Award winners 2000

There is no doubting Figo’s worthiness for our award. For years, he has arguably been the most underrated player in the European game He says: “Figo is one of the best players in the world and is good business for Real Madrid, not just in sporting terms, but also for economic reasons. He is an exemplary professional.”

Last year’s winner, Rivaldo, is back in fourth place in this year’s poll.

Manchester United were last year’s Team of the Year, but dropped to ninth this time round, way behind the clear

World champions… now European champions too

in recognition of his achievement in taking a modest Italy team to the Euro 2000 final, where they came within seconds of victory. Ironically, Zoff beat Sven-Goran Eriksson, the man he could replace at Lazio, into second place, and Roger Lemerre, the man he lost to in Rotterdam.

But the real glory belongs to Luis Figo.

Gavin Hamilton TEAM OF THE YEAR: France Zoff… barking orders

Protest…Barcelona fans brandish Figo a “mercenary”

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Dino Zoff, Italy

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Michael OWEN

2001

Golden boy…Owen graces the cover

Liverpool sweep the board

L

iverpool have achieved what no other club have done in 20 years of the World Soccer awards, winning all three categories in our 2001 poll. Michael Owen saw off strong challenges from David Beckham and Raul to be named World Player of the Year, while Liverpool and their head coach, Gerard Houllier, claimed the respective Team and Manager of the Year awards.

Owen has been recognised for his strong performances for both club and country in 2001 – displays that have also seen him claim the Ballon d’Or prize in addition to the World Soccer award. His late, match-winning double in Liverpool’s FA Cup final victory over Arsenal at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium in May was his personal club highlight in a calendar year where he racked up 31 goals in all competitions for the Reds.

But it was undoubtedly, his remarkable hat-trick for England against Germany in the Three Lions’ famous 5-1 World Cup qualifying win in Munich that tipped the vote in his favour.

Beckham polled highly following his inspiring performance against Greece in England’s final World Cup qualifier, while the votes for Raul were recognition of

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Hat-trick hero…Munich masterclass

2001 MICHAEL OWEN

Top 10 Players of 2001 Player 1) Michael Owen 2) David Beckham 3) Raul 4) Francesco Totti 5) Rivaldo 6) Oliver Kahn 7) Luis Figo 8) Andriy Shevchenko 9) Henrik Larsson 10) Hernan Crespo

Club Liverpool Manchester United Real Madrid Roma Barcelona Bayern Munich Real Madrid Milan Celtic Lazio

Country England England Spain Italy Brazil Germany Portugal Ukraine Sweden Argentina

% of vote

30.72 16.46 11.89 7.53 6.23 3.52 3.24 2.74 2.12 1.84

FA Cup final hero…sinking Arsenal at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium

his remarkable consistency for Real Madrid this past year.

Last year’s World Player of the Year, Luis Figo, could manage only seventh place this time, while his Real Madrid team-mate Zinedine Zidane, another past winner, did not even make the top ten.

Owen is the first Englishman to win our award and his victory was the third year running that a player based outside of Italy had won. Only three Italian-based players – Francesco Totti, Andriy Shevchenko and Hernan Crespo – feature in this year’s top ten, compared to three from Spain (Raul, Rivaldo and

competitions, and Liverpool’s amazing achievement in winning five trophies in as many months was unsurpassed.

Their August triumphs in the English Charity Shield and European Super Cup followed hot on the heels of what was already a remarkable treble – English League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup. Owen, Houllier and Co. withstood a strong challenge from Champions League winners Bayern Munich, whose coach, Ottmar Hitzfeld, ran Houllier very close in the Manager award.

England coach Sven Goran Eriksson finished third behind Hitzfeld with the only other international coach to make

It was undoubtedly, his remarkable hat-trick for England against Germany in the Three Lions’ famous 5-1 World Cup qualifying win in Munich that tipped the vote in his favour Figo) and two from England (Owen and Beckham) – a reflection, perhaps, of the changing nature of European football.

In a non-major tournament year, it was inevitable that voters would be influenced by the European cup

Trophy-laden…Owen won five club honours in 2001

the top ten being Argentina’s tactical mastermind Marcelo Bielsa.

France, last year’s Team winners, received only a handful of votes, while only one reader voted for last year’s Manager of the Year, Dino Zoff.

Liverpool are the third English club to win the Team award, while Houllier becomes the fourth Frenchman to claim the Manager gong.

Although English football claimed all three awards, the votes were cast from more than 50 countries, including Ethiopia, Lebanon, Myanmar and the Seychelles.

Gavin Hamilton

Owen celebrating…a recurring image from 2001

Other World Soccer Award winners 2001

Tight…Liverpool pipped Bayern Munich by less than one per cent

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Liverpool

Three-horse race…Houllier just edged out Ottmar Hitzfeld and Sven-Goran Eriksson

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Gerard Houllier, Liverpool

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

55

WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

RONALDO

2002

Iconic cover…another gong for the golden boy of Brazilian football

O Fenemeno back on top Words: Gavin Hamilton Interview: Keir Radnedge

R

onaldo’s reputation as the world’s most popular footballer has been confirmed by the results of the 2002 World Soccer awards. The Brazilian was the clear winner of this year’s World Player of the Year poll, ahead of Germany’s Michael Ballack and his Brazil and Real Madrid team-mate Roberto Carlos.

The award confirms the remarkable turnaround in Ronaldo’s fortunes over the past 12 months. The forward topped the voting at the end of a year in which he scored twice in the World Cup final and joined Spanish giants Real Madrid in a hugely controversial transfer. Yet he also spent more time on the sidelines than on the pitch.

In being voted 2002 World Player of the Year, Ronaldo is the first player to win our award three times, having previously triumphed in 1996 and 1997.

Last year’s winner, Michael Owen, finished way back in ninth place and was the only Englishman to feature in the top ten.

Players who performed well at last summer’s World Cup featured heavily, with strong showings for Roberto Carlos – the first man to win a World Cup and European Cup in the same year since 1974 – Ballack and Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.

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PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Zinedine Zidane’s masterful performance for Real Madrid in the Champions League final against Bayer Leverkusen did not go unrecognised as he finished fourth.

Brazil’s World Cup victory in the Far East ensured that they were comfortable winners of the World Team of the Year award. The South Americans were the first winners of the award, in 1982, and thus claim it for the second time, ahead of Real Madrid, Arsenal and South Korea.

But it was not to be a clean sweep for Brazil – Luiz Felipe Scolari was beaten to the Manager award by Guus Hiddink, who was honoured for his extraordinary

achievement in taking South Korea, who had not won a match in five previous World Cup finals, to the semi-finals.

The headlines, though, are Ronaldo’s.

His achievement in regaining his status as the world’s top footballer is owed, remarkably, to just four magical weeks out of 52 – the month in South Korea and Japan when Brazil won the World Cup for a record-extending fifth time.

The fuss over his transfer from Internazionale to Real Madrid did nothing to dim his popularity. Indeed, it kept his name and fame in front of the football public. For Ronaldo, it has been one of the happiest years of his career…

World Cup Golden Boot winner…

Ronaldo hit eight goals

2002 RONALDO At a distance of six months, what can you recall from winning the World Cup in the Far East?

I will never forget that wonderful feeling, and it was great to see how many people enjoyed our success.

Winning in Yokohama was far more satisfying than in 1994. Then I was only 17, and though I was in the squad, I never played. It’s completely different becoming a world champion as a reserve than as a first-choice player.

But, of course, the team depend on the support of every member of the squad – particularly now there are no great teams any more.

What has changed?

Football is much more evenly balanced now. Perhaps it’s because the top players play too many games. That’s one reason France and Argentina went out in the first round. Their players were already worn out when they arrived. We play far too much for our clubs in different competitions and for the national team.

It’s getting worse every year. Players are people, not robots. I don’t understand, for example, why we have to play 18 matches in the South American qualifying section of the World Cup. After the World Cup came all the fuss about your transfer to Real Madrid. It was compared to a soap opera, it ran on so long.

Did it feel like that to you?

It was a difficult time but I don’t want to look back. It’s over and I can concentrate on fulfilling a dream by playing for the greatest club in the world. I had talked about my future with Inter before the World Cup so this was not a big surprise to them, whatever people try to say.

But it was during the World Cup when I finally decided I wanted to play for a club who could support me, not a club that I was expected to carry on my own shoulders.

It was said that the Internazionale president, Massimo Moratti, was like a father to you…

Nothing would have been possible

Galactico…Real Madrid new boy

without Moratti’s help – even right at the end when everything was so complicated. He understood my concerns all along. I know it looks as if I betrayed Inter and Moratti, but it really was not like that. I don’t have any problem with the fans, either. They were always brilliant with me. I am sorry things ended as they did but they will think better of me in time, when they understand more about what happened.

Is it correct that Madrid will not pay you whenever the knee plays up?

I don’t want to discuss my contract publicly. But there is no clause, for instance, which gives me time off to go home for Carnival. That’s another misunderstanding that worked against me in Italy. I attended Carnival in Rio only when I was recovering from injuries and so I could not play or train properly and was either resting back at home or convalescing. I certainly won’t be asking Madrid if I can go home for Carnival.

It was suggested you missed the game at Barcelona not because of illness but so you would not get the same reaction as Luis Figo. Was that true?

Not at all. I was desperate to play at Camp Nou. But when I arrived back from Korea I had a temperature. I have learned not to take any risks. I have a lot of friends in Barcelona I was looking forward to meeting again. I enjoyed my season there and now intend enjoying my time with Madrid. I know, from my time with Barcelona, that I can enjoy playing in Spain more than in Italy. The football in Spain is more entertaining, you see more chances and more goals.

Between 1998 and 2002 you had all of those injuries. Did you ever think you wouldn’t play again?

It never occurred to me. I always knew I would play again – and I don’t worry about a recurrence. The fans were incredible to me. They helped me in my recoveries. That’s why I would never complain about the pressures of fame.

Do you ever think back to that disastrous World Cup final of 1998?

Never. What happened in France is best forgotten. A lot of nonsense has been written and spoken about it. But to what point? It’s all in the past now. You can’t change anything. So it’s far better to be positive about the present and the future.

Do you have any football ambitions left to achieve?

I’ve never won the Champions League, but I’ve achieved the most important ambition – being able to play again.

Top 10 Players of 2002 Player 1) Ronaldo 2) Michael Ballack 3) Roberto Carlos 4) Zinedine Zidane 5) Oliver Kahn 6) Rivaldo 7) Raul 8) Thierry Henry 9) Michael Owen 10) Ronaldinho

Club Inter/Real Madrid B. Leverkusen/B. Munich Real Madrid Real Madrid Bayern Munich Barcelona/Milan Real Madrid Arsenal Liverpool Paris Saint-Germain

Country Brazil Germany Brazil France Germany Brazil Spain France England Brazil

% of vote

26.17 17.69 8.48 5.95 4.87 3.61 3.42 3.24 2.44 2.26

Ronaldo and Ronaldinho…first and tenth in the poll

Other World Soccer Award winners 2002 World Champions…Selecao

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Brazil Korea’s national hero…Hiddink with his players

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Guus Hiddink, South Korea

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Pavel NEDVED

2003

Cover star…Czech mate

Czech star grabs the glory

P

avel Nedved’s brilliant performances for Juventus and the Czech Republic have earned him this year’s accolade as the world’s best player.

He gained more than a third of the votes from World Soccer readers in our 22nd annual poll.

The 31-year-old was the outstanding player for Juventus as they retained the Serie A title and reached the Champions League final. Nedved missed that game through suspension after being booked in the semi-final, when his spectacular performance was a major factor in the defeat of competition favourites Real Madrid. Juventus went on to lose the final on penalties to Milan, winners of our Team of the Year award and coached by Carlo Ancelotti, our World Manager of the Year.

Runaway winner Nedved saw off some strong competition for the player award. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s goalscoring exploits for Manchester United and the Netherlands won enough votes to secure second place, ahead of Raul, the consistently brilliant Real Madrid forward. Paolo Maldini, winner of the award back in 1994, came fourth - a recognition of his achievement in winning a fourth European Cup with Milan.

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Playmaker …Juventus’ star man

2003 PAVEL NEDVED

Top 10 Players of 2003 Player 1) Pavel Nedved 2) Ruud van Nistelrooy 3) Raul 4) Paolo Maldini 5) Thierry Henry 6) Ronaldo 7) Roy Makaay 8) Andriy Shevchenko 9) Roberto Carlos 10) David Beckham

Club Juventus Manchester United Real Madrid Milan Arsenal Real Madrid Deportivo/B. Munich Milan Real Madrid Man Utd/Real Madrid

Country % of vote Czech Republic 35.9 Netherlands 9.5 Spain 9.1 Italy 8.2 France 6.1 Brazil 4.3 Netherlands 4 Ukraine 2.8 Brazil 2.6 England 2.1

Ballon d’Or France Football’s accolade soon followed World Soccer’s prize

Thierry Henry, France’s best player when they won the Confederations Cup in the summer and continually brilliant for Arsenal, finished fifth, ahead of last year’s winner, Ronaldo, in sixth place.

Andriy Shevchenko, the scorer of the winning penalty in the Champions League final shootout victory for Milan, finished eighth – matching his position when he last made the top ten in 2001.

second, ahead of Jose Mourinho, coach of UEFA Cup winners Porto.

Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson, winner of the award in 1999, was fourth, beating Martin O’Neill of Celtic into fifth place. Carlos Bianchi, manager of Copa Libertadores winners Boca Juniors, was next, followed by Real Sociedad’s French coach Raynald Denoueix.

Voting in the World Team of the Year

Nedved was the outstanding player for Juventus as they retained the Serie A title and reached the Champions League final Carlo Ancelotti, Shevchenko’s club coach took the Manager award after guiding the Rossoneri to a sixth European Cup. He is the fourth Italian to win the prize, following Enzo Bearzot (1982), Arrigo Sacchi (1989) and Dino Zoff (2000). Marcello Lippi of Juventus, Ancelotti’s opposing number in the Champions League final, finished

category followed a similar pattern with Milan holding off Juventus for a double celebration. Real Madrid’s popularity is reflected in their third-place finish, but there is also recognition for Porto (fifth) and Real Sociedad (eighth).

The Czech Republic were the highestplaced international side, in sixth place.

Gavin Hamilton

Champions…celebrating Juventus’ title win with the supporters

Other World Soccer Award winners 2003 Paolo Maldini…lifting the Champions League trophy for Milan

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Milan

Ancelotti…coach with his captain National hero…Nedved hoists the flag of the Czech Republic in celebration

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Carlo Ancelotti, Milan

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

RONALDINHO

2004

Ronaldinho rules…revitalising Barca

Priceless prince of Barcelona

B

arcelona’s brilliant Brazilian, Ronaldinho, is your choice as 2004 World Player of the Year.

The award is recognition of Ronaldinho’s pivotal role in revitalising Barcelona over the past 12 months. His impact since joining the club from PSG in July 2003 has been immense and deserves to be compared to that of his compatriot Ronaldo in 1996. After Barca’s poor start to last season, Ronaldinho inspired them to qualify for the Champions League; this season they have led from the front in La Liga, while their entertaining style of football has been carried over to the Champions League.

Ronaldinho has contributed a series of crucial goals, including a late winner against Milan.

Thierry Henry, an early favourite for this year’s award after playing a key role in Arsenal’s record 49-game unbeaten run, finished second. Andriy Shevchenko, top scorer in Serie A last season, was third, with Deco, star of Porto’s Champions League victory and who has since joined Barcelona, fourth.

Jose Mourinho was the clear winner of the Manager award, recognition of his success in guiding unfancied Porto to Champions League glory – just a year on from their UEFA Cup triumph. Otto Rehhagel, who masterminded Greece’s

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shock win at Euro 2004, finished second, ahead of Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.

English champions Arsenal ran Greece close for the Team award, but the Greeks, 100-1 outsiders at the beginning of Euro 2004, were the marginal winners after their amazing success in Portugal.

Porto were third and Barca fourth, but Ronaldinho looks set to bring back the good times to Camp Nou.

President Joan Laporta must wake up in the middle of the night sweating with fright at the thought that if he had kept his pre-election promise in the summer of 2003, he would have wound up with David Beckham – and Ronaldinho would probably be weaving his magic in Madrid.

The Brazilian joins an elite clutch of fellow countrymen who have carried off the game’s major individual awards

Priceless…

Ronaldinho

2004 RONALDINHO down the years. World Soccer has lauded Zico, Ronaldo and Rivaldo; the European Footballer of the Year award has lighted on Rivaldo and Ronaldo since France Football changed the rules in 1995; the South Americans have worshipped Pele, Tostao, Zico, Socrates, Bebeto, Rai, Cafu and Romario; and FIFA’s World Player prize has similarly rewarded the talents of Romario, Ronaldo and Rivaldo.

In addition to individual honours, Ronaldinho also boasts the ultimate status of World Cup winner after his outstanding campaign in 2002.

Now Laporta’s senior director, Sandro Rosell, has piled on the superlatives by saying: “Ronaldinho has achieved in a remarkably short time what very few players in the world could’ve done. Our club was on its knees administratively, technically and socially when he arrived.

Now we can all take pride once more in Barcelona – on and off the pitch.”

Rosell was key in bringing Ronaldinho into mainstream European club football from the confused shadows of PSG. He had been Nike’s liaison with the Brazilian federation and national team and thus gained privileged access to its stars.

Persuading Ronaldinho cost nothing; signing him cost £18m, which now looks a bargain. Indeed, Rosell claims he has since rejected a £60m bid from Chelsea.

“Ronaldinho is priceless,” he says.

Born on March 21, 1980, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira made his senior debut for Gremio of Porto Alegre, not in the Brazilia championship or the Rio Grande do Sul state league but, appropriately and prophetically, on the international

2001. Ronaldinho struggled, however, with both the expectations and the discipline. He repeatedly fell foul of coach Luis Fernandez, enjoying the star’s lifestyle a little too much.

The more Fernandez complained, the more Ronaldinho sulked, to the point where his talent and application began to be questioned. Then came the 2002 World Cup, where Ronaldinho scored against China and the teasing free-kick versus England in the quarter-final, during which he was also sent off. At a mere 24 he now totals 27 goals in 57 caps.

His World Cup success led to a perverse deterioration of his relationship with PSG. Everyone had seen that he was a class above the run of French football, and the player and his advisers soon knew it from the string of informal offers that flooded in. He says: “I learned a lot at PSG as player and person. I had some good times and some bad but, as an apprenticeship, it was important.”

In the summer of 2003 the question was not whether Ronaldinho would be going but when. Manchester United were strongly tipped to sign him, so were Juventus, Inter, Real Madrid and Barcelona. The Beckham issue was a complication. At first, Laporta and Rosell were promising to bring the England captain to Barca, then Real Madrid emerged as the ultimate destination.

Ronaldinho was considered “second prize” when he turned up at Camp Nou to sign for Barca. Some second prize.

The first season in Spain was, for Ronaldinho, a question of finding his feet in a club badly bruised by a long-running

Top 10 Players of 2004 Player 1) Ronaldinho 2) Thierry Henry 3) Andriy Shevchenko 4) Deco 5) Pavel Nedved 6) Wayne Rooney 7) Adriano 8) Frank Lampard 9) Theo Zagorakis 10) Milan Baros

Club Barcelona Arsenal Milan Porto/Barcelona Juventus Everton/Manchester Utd Internazionale Chelsea AEK Athens/Bologna Liverpool

Country % of vote Brazil 28.6 France 22.2 Ukraine 12.6 Portugal 10.2 Czech Republic 3.5 England 2.6 Brazil 2.2 England 2.0 Greece 1.7 Czech Republic 1.5

Top three…iconic triumvirate of Shevchenko, Ronaldinho and Henry

Other World Soccer Award winners 2004 Underdogs…Euro 2004 winners

“My mother wanted me to pay more attention to school but it wasn’t possible.

I even ‘dribbled’ a football between my feet when we sat down to meals” stage in the Copa Libertadores. His hero then was his elder brother, Roberto, who is now his personal manager. Ronaldinho says: “I always wanted to be a professional like him. We lived for football when I was a kid. My mother wanted me to pay more attention to school but it wasn’t possible.

I even ‘dribbled’ a football between my feet when we sat down to meals.”

He first met Luiz Felipe Scolari at Gremio, recalling: “Scolari coached the first team while I was in the juniors. But when training was over with the seniors he would often come to watch us.”

A year after making his Gremio debut Ronaldinho helped Brazil win the 1999 Copa America and inspired his club’s state title win. His reputation spread throughout Brazil, then Latin America, then to Europe – and he joined PSG in

political civil war. But he had no doubts about his choice: “I was a Barcelona fan as a boy because of the Brazilian players who came here. I want to do as well as they did – and better if possible.”

Possible is now verging on the probable with Barcelona running away at the top of La Liga and up among the favourites to win the Champions League.

“This club has a duty to its fans to win the Champions League,” says Ronaldinho.

“We are one of the historical ‘greats’ of world football. I don’t want to be overconfident but we are something special.”

Some players dismiss personal awards as far inferior to cups and leagues but Ronaldinho sees them “as recognition of my own contribution to club and country – certainly something to be proud of”.

Keir Radnedge

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Greece

Special one…

Mourinho

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Jose Mourinho, Porto/Chelsea

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

RONALDINHO

2005

Brazilian baller…Ronaldinho

Fantasy for real

I

f Ronaldinho carries on as he is, we will soon be putting him among the all-time greats.

A little while back, I received an e-mail with an internet link and the simple message: “The most amazing thing ever.” The link takes you to footage that has just been used for an advert. In it, Ronaldinho ambles over to the penalty area at Camp Nou, where a man with a small metallic suitcase awaits. In the background, the Brazilian’s team-mates are training, knocking a ball about among themselves, as he opens the case and pulls out a pair of gold encrusted boots.

Ronaldinho thanks the man, laces up his new boots, flicks a football into the air and starts playing keepy-uppy. The footage is silent except for the soft sound of him gently tapping at the ball, not once allowing it to drop.

Strolling around the edge of the penalty area, tracing the white line to the middle, the ball still in the air, he volleys it towards goal. The ball strikes the bar and comes straight back to him.

He controls it on his chest, swivels and volleys it goalwards. Again, it hits the bar and travels in a long, true arc straight back to him, where he controls it again and, still without letting it drop, hammers it goalwards for a third time. And, for a third time, it thuds back off the bar and sails straight back to him.

Ludicrous hat-trick completed, and completed so coolly you’d think he did it every day of the week, Ronaldinho

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retraces his steps back to the man with the case, still not letting the ball drop.

He sits down, takes off his boots, pops them back in the case, nods his approval and smiles that smile: yeah, not bad.

Not bad? It is, as the e-mail says, the most amazing thing ever.

It is also a fake, a montage. It has to be. Doesn’t it? The friend who sent it reckoned the footage was genuine, others think that it wasn’t, it couldn’t possibly be. Could it?

And that’s the point, the measure of Ronaldinho’s brilliance. That it was

something you vowed to get to the bottom of rather than simply dismissing spoke volumes. The very fact that anyone could even begin to believe that such an incredible and utterly nonchalant demonstration of skill could be genuine is telling – and only with Ronaldinho would they begin to believe it.

The Brazilian has got people used to seeing things they have never seen before, skills they could never have imagined, flicks they never contemplated and can’t understand. Now it seems right. Now that they know him, would anyone dare

Football freak…one of a kind

2005 RONALDINHO accuse him of a fluke if he scored that goal versus England again? Of course not.

Ronaldinho has broken the rules. He is a cartoon character, a caricature even. A PlayStation player. Plain silly. It might not be pushing it to say we have never seen anything like it – a player with such skill and talent, and so effective with it. Sure, there have been tricksters – Deportivo’s incredible Brazilian Djalminha springs to mind – and players with special talents, but not like this. Ronaldinho is different; carry on as he is, add another World Cup and European Cup to his sumptuous skills, consummate his talent, and we may well be talking about an all-time great.

There may have been others who deserved World Soccer’s Player of the Year award ahead of him in terms of their impact and performance over the past year – Samuel Eto’o, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Paolo Maldini could all lay strong claims – but none match the sheer wow factor of Ronaldinho.

The utter brilliance. The wonder and fun. “Ronaldinho,” Franz Beckenbauer said, “is art in its purest form.”

But there is more to it than that.

Rejected by Real Madrid, the Brazilian proved the catalyst for Barca’s recovery, a leader as well as a fantasy footballer.

A man with a wonderful, childlike

the passes with his back, for goodness sake. He even makes penalties look special, sending them screaming, bending into the corner before the keeper has moved.

It all works, too. It is showy but not just for show. In Ronaldinho’s first season at Barca, the team defeated Madrid at the Bernabeu thanks to his awesome scooped pass to Xavi, he scored two candidates for Champions League goal of the season last term – against Milan and Chelsea – and his first-ever goal for Barcelona, against Sevilla, went thundering in off the underside of the bar after a 50-yard run.

And recently there was the glorious peak, in Barcelona’s 3-0 victory at the Bernabeu, the proof that sometimes footballing genius conquers all; two goals so good that he earned a standing ovation from the Real Madrid fans. The last man to be handed that honour was a certain Diego Armando Maradona.

Becoming undisputed World Player of the Year for 2005 after topping our annual poll, Ronaldinho retains the title he won 12 months ago and in doing so becomes only the third player to win the award in successive seasons, after Michel Platini and Ronaldo.

He also recorded the fourth biggest share of the vote – almost 39 per cent

Ronaldinho has broken the rules. He is a cartoon character, a caricature even.

A PlayStation player. Plain silly. It might not be pushing it to say we have never seen anything like it enthusiasm for football yet the power of a gym-obsessive. As one former Madrid player put it: “He’s an amazing athlete, so strong and quick. He’d be brilliant even without the flicks and tricks.”

And yet it is the flicks, the skills, the sheer jaw-dropping madness of it all that really make Ronaldinho so different.

The cow’s tail, as the Spanish call it, where he spins 360 degrees with the ball on his toe, pulling it across the turf beyond his man, not playing it. The backheels, stepovers and devastatingly quick feet. The passes without looking,

Flair…pulling out a trick in the Champions League

– in the 24-year history of the award.

He received almost three times as many votes as his closest rival, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard. Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard finished third.

This year’s voting confirmed Spain, England and Italy as the world’s foremost leagues, with four players from La Liga, three from the Premiership and three from Serie A in the top ten.

Jose Mourinho retained the Manager award, the first time that has ever been achieved, edging out Liverpool’s Rafa Benitez after leading Chelsea to their first league title for 50 years. However, Liverpool won the Team award on the strength of their Champions League triumph. Barcelona’s Frank Rijkaard and Fabio Capello of Juventus came third and fourth respectively in the Manager list following title wins with their clubs.

There was also a new award this year.

Brazilian starlet Robinho won a close race with England forward Wayne Rooney for the Young Player prize with Barcelona teenager Lionel Messi coming third.

Sid Lowe

Top 10 Players of 2005 Player 1) Ronaldinho 2) Steven Gerrard 3) Frank Lampard 4) Adriano 5) Andriy Shevchenko 6) Juan Roman Riquelme 7) Thierry Henry 8) Kaka 9) Samuel Eto’o 10) Deco

Club Barcelona Liverpool Chelsea Internazionale Milan Villarreal Arsenal Milan Barcelona Barcelona

Country Brazil England England Brazil Ukraine Argentina France Brazil Cameroon Portugal

% of vote

38.9 13.4 12.6 5.1 4.6 4.4 3.6 2.8 2.6 1.5

Ballon d’Or…Ronaldinho also won France Football’s top prize

Other World Soccer Award winners 2005 Champions…of Europe (Liverpool) and England (Chelsea)

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Liverpool MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Jose Mourinho, Chelsea

Starlet…

Robinho

YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Robinho, Real Madrid & Brazil

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Fabio CANNAVARO

2006

Azzurri triumph…Cannavaro was central to Italy’s victory

The case for the defence

I

taly’s World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro is one of a rare breed, and wasted no time in attributing his success in lifting a number of individual player awards to the support of his team-mates, both at former club Juventus and Italy.

“It is thanks to them that I have been able to show my qualities on the pitch,” said the 33-year-old World Cup-winning captain, now at Real Madrid, and whose prizes have included World Soccer’s Player of the Year award and France Football’s Ballon d’Or, the European Footballer of the Year prize. “So I must thank my Juve team-mates and all my colleagues from the national team.”

Cannavaro was born and brought up in Naples and was a ball boy at Napoli’s Stadio San Paolo at the height of the Maradona mania in the late 1980s. He was even a ball boy when Maradona’s Argentina beat Italy on penalties in the World Cup semi-final of 1990.

Months later, Cannavaro and Maradona found themselves at even closer quarters when the Italian was assigned to mark Argentina’s captain in a practice game. Cannavaro apparently went in so hard that one coach told him to ease up, only for Maradona to call out: “You’re doing fine, carry on as you are.”

Claudio Ranieri handed him his firstteam debut in March 1993, a 4-3 defeat

by Juventus. Two years later he joined Parma, but was sad to leave. Cannavaro

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says: “I know Naples has a particular reputation but it is a very special city, my city. Some of it is not safe but you can say that about most big cities. I was very lucky to become a professional footballer. Some of the kids I grew up with are no longer with us because of drugs or crime.

“Fortunately my family was very solid, and then, when I was growing up, the city was mad about Maradona.

I used to play football in the streets as

kids do now and I am proud about Naples and for them through my achievements – though I do not kid myself I will ever come close to Maradona in the city’s affections, no matter how many awards I get.”

Cannavaro stayed with Parma for seven seasons, where he formed a tight defensive unit with future Juve colleagues Gigi Buffon and Lilian Thuram, played European football every season and won the UEFA Cup in 1999.

World Cup winner…

Cannavaro

2006 FABIO CANNAVARO By then, Cannavaro had also become a national team regular, had starred at the 1998 World Cup and was an obvious fundraising asset when Parma’s finances began to creak. Thus, he moved to Inter, where he spent three unsettled, belowpar seasons before being “rescued” by Juventus in 2004 by a combination of coach Fabio Capello and notorious general manager Luciano Moggi.

As for the Calciopoli match-fixing issue, the defender says: “We players knew nothing. What I do know is that our quality was proved by the fact that eight Juventus players, Italian and French, were in the World Cup final.”

The inquiry, which produced a stream of sensational revelations, worked in Italy’s favour at the World Cup, encouraging a siege mentality that coach Marcello Lippi and skipper Cannavaro wielded to powerful effect within the dressing room.

So Italy went on to win the final on penalties against France in the German capital, which earned Cannavaro, playing his 100th international for the Azzurri, his new nickname of the “Berlin Wall”.

He says: “Those of us from Juventus felt in particular we needed to prove that what we had won we had won out on the pitch. We were disappointed the prizes we had earned were taken away from us.

Inter’s players know they did not deserve

Last season was outstanding for me.

I played in 36 matches and scored four goals, all decisive. But when you are past 30 other priorities cut in.”

The defender blames his slow start at Madrid on the World Cup hangover that has affected so many other senior players.

He says: “A lot of top clubs made a mixed start because their World Cup players were catching up on fitness and form.

The players of Italy, France, Germany and Portugal [the semi-finalists] were all up to a month later coming back to work than players of nations eliminated in the first round in Germany.

“It really was an exhausting experience, both physically and mentally...but, of course, also highly rewarding.”

Unsurprisingly the World Cup dominated our awards, as judged by you, to determine the world’s best players over the past 12 months.

Cannavaro is only the second defender to win World Soccer’s top prize in the awards’ 25-year history, after compatriot Paolo Maldini in 1994. But his margin of victory was one of the highest.

Cannavaro took over 40 per cent of the votes, more than three times as many as Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry of Arsenal and France, who finished second and third.

Cannavaro is only the second defender to win World Soccer’s top prize in the awards’ 25-year history it [Inter were named champions after the 2005-06 title was stripped from Juve].

There was a clear gap in class between us.”

Italy conceded only two goals en route to the final, with Cannavaro giving his finest display in the semi-final against Germany in Dortmund.

The failure of the major attacking stars to shine in Germany opened the door to Cannavaro’s award success, according to former Brazil wing-back Leonardo. He says: “He benefited because this was a merely average World Cup, technically.

Cannavaro has a low centre of gravity, which means he is very fast. He reads the game well and always arrives before the forward when he tackles. He has incredible concentration, inner strength and is superbly fit. He is not very tall but he is rarely beaten in the air because he jumps so well. He also has great charisma and people clearly like him.”

Cannavaro had helped Juventus to a second successive Serie A title last season but their subsequent demotion to Serie B prompted his instant, if reluctant, departure for Real Madrid. He says: “If I had been much younger it would not have occurred to me to leave Juventus.

Cannavaro’s personal standing appears to have been unaffected by the crisis that engulfed Italian football, and Juventus in particular.

Eto’o’s position as runner-up is a tribute to his Champions League and Spanish league success with Barcelona, while Henry was on the losing side in both the World Cup final and the Champions League final, the two major competitions of the year. Ronaldinho, the award winner of the past two years, finished only fourth – a reflection of his poor form for Brazil at the World Cup. Italy’s World Cup victory was also the decisive factor in the Manager award, with Marcello Lippi a clear winner ahead of Barcelona’s Dutchman Frank Rijkaard and Germany’s Jurgen Klinsmann, but it was not to be a clean sweep for Italy, since Barcelona took the Team award.

Barca also triumphed in the Young Player award – only the second time we have cast votes for this category – their Argentinian starlet Lionel Messi seeing off the challenge of Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas and Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo.

Keir Radnedge

Top 10 Players of 2006 Player 1) Fabio Cannavaro 2) Samuel Eto’o 3) Thierry Henry 4) Ronaldinho 5) Gianluigi Buffon 6) Didier Drogba 7) Juan Roman Riquelme 8) Miroslav Klose 9) Kaka 10) Deco

Club Juventus/Real Madrid Barcelona Arsenal Barcelona Juventus Chelsea Villarreal Werder Bremen Milan Barcelona

Country Italy Cameroon France Brazil Italy Ivory Coast Argentina Germany Brazil Portugal

% of vote

40.1 12.6 12.1 8.2 4.9 3.3 2.1 1.6 1.4 1.3

Third…World Cup and Champions League runner-up Thierry Henry

Other World Soccer Award winners 2006

Coaching masterclass…Lippi

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Marcello Lippi, Italy TEAM OF THE YEAR: Barcelona Youth and experience…

Messi battles Cannavaro

YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Lionel Messi, Barcelona & Argentina

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

KAKA

2007

Brazilian boy…Kaka

Perfect son

M

ilan’s Brazilian star does not fit the identikit of the modern footballer. Kaka is almost too good to be true. With his clean-faced good looks it is no surprise when he pulls up his jersey to reveal a T-shirt that reads: “I belong to Christ”. Unlike some of his fellow star players, he makes headlines solely with his football, not because of a “colourful” lifestyle. After all, Milan’s Brazilian playmaker does proudly boast he was still a virgin on his wedding day.

Kaka also avoids controversy on the pitch. For example, he has never been sent off in five seasons in Serie A. Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite is a supremely appropriate winner of both World Soccer’s World Player of the Year award and France Football’s Ballon d’Or. For once, we have a winner about whom there are no “ifs” and “buts”. Explosively fast (he covers the first 40 metres in 3.8 seconds), beautifully balanced and able to play off either foot, the 25-yearold is the complete player. He is also capable of single-handedly turning big matches – witness his role, including ten goals, in Milan’s triumphant Champions League campaign last season.

All in all, it is hard not to agree with Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi when he says of Kaka: “He plays consistently well, he’s a class player who not only wins games for you but also scores wonderful goals. He’s a good-looking boy, the sort of boy all mothers and fathers would want as a husband for their daughter.”

Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti is also

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Faith…a higher power

2007 KAKA a big fan. In September he told World Soccer that if Kaka did not win the Ballon d’Or, he would chain himself to the railings outside the offices of France Football in protest. He also revealed that, such is Kaka’s talent, he leaves him to decide for himself where and how to play. “He handles the situations himself,” Ancelotti said. “He decides whether to move forward or back 10 metres. He follows his instinct, and that is just fine by me.”

Kaka has looked like the real thing right from his arrival in Italy in the summer of 2003. Serie A is not an easy league for foreigners to adjust to. The tactical rigour and defensive discipline can smother the talent of even the most creative midfielders. But Kaka’s start was so explosive that it effectively spelled the end at Milan for compatriot playmaker Rivaldo and demoted Portuguese star Rui Costa to second choice.

With other players, this situation could have led to embarrassing public rows, but Rivaldo commented: “This guy is a phenomenon. How could I be jealous of him? I advised the club to buy him.”

the Brazilian with an offer of higher wages, though Kaka had appeared happy to stay true to the original Milan timeframe.

Throughout this autumn in the face of siren calls from Real Madrid, Kaka has remained remarkably focused on Milan.

“I’ve always said I wanted to become a key player for this club,” he said. “Now, I feel I am a more mature player, and that’s one reason why I score more goals. Now, I would like to be the captain of Milan.”

Can the Milan fans believe such sweetsounding words, or was Kaka merely being diplomatic? With any other player, a pinch of salt would be called for. With Kaka, it might well be true. After all, he just does not fit the footballer stereotype.

Apart from his openness about his religious faith, there is his background.

Kaka, the son of an engineer father and a maths teacher mother, is one Brazilian superstar who does not fit into the clichéd role of “poor boy from the favelas”.

Certainly for the time being, it would seem Kaka has decided Milan is the place to be, having grown into his role at the club both literally – he is three centimetres

“This guy is a phenomenon. How could I be jealous of him?”

Rivaldo pays tribute to Kaka after losing his place at Milan to him Rather than being intimidated by lining up alongside such players as Shevchenko, Inzaghi, Pirlo, Seedorf, Nesta and Maldini, Kaka immediately gave the impression of having played with them all his life. The same could be said of Brazil, when the youngster looked completely and instantly at ease alongside Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Emerson et al.

Kaka’s relationship with Milan began in the summer of 2001, when Leonardo, the former Milan and Brazil midfielder, was sent to check him out at Sao Paulo.

This impressed the youngster, whom Leonardo took aside to explain that Milan were “serious” about him, even though the projected transfer date was 2004. In the end, Milan signed him up a year early for £6.3 million, with Chelsea sniffing around

Champion…lifting the European Cup

taller and five kilos heavier than when he arrived – and metaphorically.

And why not? He was the clear winner in our 26th annual poll, with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi second and Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United third. Kaka garnered 52.8 per cent of your votes, making him only the second player in the history of the award, after Michel Platini back in 1984, to receive more than half the votes cast.

Kaka’s victory was also confirmation of the pre-eminent status of the UEFA Champions League in the world game.

The Brazilian declined to play in the year’s major international tournament, the Copa America, yet his outstanding contribution to Milan as they became European champions for the seventh time made him the popular choice.

Sir Alex Ferguson won the Manager award for a record third time after steering Manchester United to the English title for the first time in four years, while Iraq’s extraordinary journey from war-torn also-rans to continental champions with victory at the Asian Cup earned them the Team award, the first time it has gone to an Asian side.

Messi picked up the Young Player award for the second year running, with Arsenal and Spain star Cesc Fabregas the runner-up and Cristiano Ronaldo third – the same trio as last year.

Paddy Agnew

Top 10 Players of 2007 Player 1) Kaka 2) Lionel Messi 3) Cristiano Ronaldo 4) Didier Drogba 5) Juan Roman Riquelme 6) Cesc Fabregas 7) Francesco Totti 8) Zlatan Ibrahimovic 9) Ruud van Nistelrooy 10) Ronaldinho

Club Milan Barcelona Manchester United Chelsea Villarreal/BocaJuniors Arsenal Roma Internazionale Real Madrid Barcelona

Country % of vote Brazil 52.8 Argentina 17.6 Portugal 16 Ivory Coast 4.4 Argentina 1.2 Spain 0.8 Italy 0.7 Sweden 0.6 Netherlands 0.5 Brazil 0.4

Ushering in a new era…Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Lionel Messi

Other World Soccer Award winners 2007 Asian champions…Iraq

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Iraq

Premier League title number nine…Fergie

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Alex Ferguson, Manchester United YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Lionel Messi, Barcelona & Argentina

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Cristiano RONALDO 2008

Suspense…the 2008 Awards cover gave nothing away

Welldeserved accolades

C

ristiano Ronaldo, star performer in Manchester United’s Champions League triumph, is World Soccer’s Player of the Year for 2008.

The Portugal winger was the clear winner in our 27th annual poll, with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi second and Fernando Torres of Liverpool in third place.

Ronaldo is the first United player to win the individual prize, while last year’s winner, Kaka, did not even make the top ten. Instead, five of the top ten places are taken by members of Spain’s victorious team at Euro 2008 – Torres, captain Iker Casillas, David Villa, Xavi and Marcos Senna.

Spain triumphed in the Team of the Year category, ahead of Manchester United, UEFA Cup winners Zenit Saint Petersburg and Copa Libertadores winners LDU Quito of Ecuador. African champions Egypt, who successfully defended their title last January, finished fifth and there was also recognition for the achievements of underdogs CFR Cluj, Hoffenheim and Anorthosis Famagusta.

Sir Alex Ferguson won the Manager of the Year award for a record fourth time, a clear winner ahead of Spain’s Luis Aragones and Zenit’s Dick

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European champion...

Ronaldo

2008 CRISTIANO RONALDO

Top 10 Players of 2008 Player 1) Cristiano Ronaldo 2) Lionel Messi 3) Fernando Torres 4) Iker Casillas 5) Xavi 6) David Villa 7) Andrey Arshavin 8) Marcos Senna 9) Franck Ribery 10) Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Club Manchester United Barcelona Liverpool Real Madrid Barcelona Valencia Zenit Villarreal Bayern Munich Internazionale

Country Portugal Argentina Spain Spain Spain Spain Russia Spain France Sweden

% of vote

48.4 15.1 13.6 5.7 5.1 2.1 1.4 0.7 0.6 0.5

Kiss…Cristiano also collected his first-ever Ballon d’Or award

Advocaat. Egypt’s Hassan Shehata, one of the few African-born coaches to manage a team at the Nations Cup,

Lionel Messi was the clear winner of the Young Player award (for the third time in succession), ahead of Atletico

The honours keep rolling in. World Soccer World Player of the Year, FIFPro Player of the Year, Ballon d’Or, UEFA Club Footballer of the Year, FIFA World Player of the Year, top goalscorer in the English Premier League and winner of the European Golden Shoe finished fourth, while Guus Hiddink’s eye-catching achievements with Euro 2008 semi-finalists Russia was recognised with his fifth place.

Double…Premier League and Champions League

Madrid hot shot Sergio Aguero and Lyon striker Karim Benzema.

But the main award saw Messi comprehensively outvoted by Ronaldo, for whom the honours keep rolling in.

The World Soccer World Player of the Year award is just the latest recognition of his phenomenal success and outstanding individual talent. Thus far Ronaldo has won the Champions League (this year), two Premier League titles, the FA Cup once and the League Cup. He was a World Cup semi-finalist in 2006, a runner-up with Portugal at Euro 2004 and a quarter-finalist this year in Austria and Switzerland.

At individual level he has been named FIFPro Player of the Year (by the international players’ union), won France Football’s Ballon d’Or, was the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year, FIFA World Player of the Year and was both top goalscorer last season in the English Premier League and winner of the European Golden Shoe.

Naturally he was also England’s Footballer of the Year.

Gavin Hamilton

No.1…Ronaldo also pipped Messi and Torres to the FIFA gong

Other World Soccer Award winners 2008 Euro 2008 winners…La Roja

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Spain Three-time Young Player …Leo Messi

YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Lionel Messi, Barcelona & Argentina MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Alex Ferguson, Manchester United

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Lionel MESSI

Messi…masterful

Th he cleancu ut kid d

I

t’s no contest as Leo Messi sweeps the board with his first-ever World Soccer Player of the Year gong. Barcelona’s Argentinian star is heading for a clean sweep – and with no argument. The judgment of World Soccer’ Soccer’s worldwide readers and contributors has never, ever been in question. A dispassionate cross-section of opinion of the world game has spoken.

The prestigious European Footballer of the Year trophy went the way of Barcelona’s Argentina forward despite his comparatively modest contribution in the 2010 World Cup qualifying competition. FIFA’s Player of the Year prize will also fall into his lap after Barcelona’s all-conquering year of Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, La Liga, Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup – with no bets against him adding the Club World Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo was indisputably the No.1 choice a year ago, with Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro pragmatically inevitable after his country’s World Cup victory in 2006.

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Touch…Messi controls the ball

2009

2009 LIONEL MESSI Messi’s progress towards formal acknowledgement began in August 2008 when he and Argentina won the Olympic football gold medal in a scandalously mistimed final in the midday heat of Beijing.

Simultaneously, while Messi was in China, so Pep Guardiola was a few weeks into a remarkable coaching career which has rocketed him from Barcelona nursery team to European domination. The partnership of this pair has proved magisterial. Guardiola provides the platform; Messi the match-turning genius.

Even when he is less than the focus of attention, Messi’s reputation and threat is enough to distract defenders’ attention. He is not merely the sharpest individual talent in the world game – he is also the most effective support act.

Real Madrid would agree, reluctantly, after his two superb goals last term at the Bernabeu; so would Athletic Bilbao after seeing Messi claim the goal which turned around the Copa del Rey final; so would Manchester United after gifting Messi the decisive second goal which secured Barcelona their Champions League final success in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.

approaching the fringe of the penalty box, but Barcelona are not doing so badly as they are.

Pele has said: “It’s Messi’s turn,” in reviewing the various candidates for the top awards over the past few years, “after Ronaldinho, Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo.”

Barcelona claim to have lined up more top-award winners than any other club and Messi can go on extending that line. He has committed himself to a contract extension which would keep him at Camp Nou until 2016 and president Joan Laporta knows the price.

He made Zlatan Ibrahimovic – as the Swede’s agent had demanded – the best-paid player at the club on arriving from Internazionale…and then, almost the next day, called Messi’s men to rewrite the contract which lifted Messi back to top spot.

Everyone knows the story: how he arrived at La Masia aged 13 from Newell’s Old Boys’ youth section and was coached and built up. He has now won 28 prizes of one sort or another in only six years – both team and individual – since being promoted to Barcelona’s senior squad in 2005-06.

That season he was also top scorer

Lionel Messi is World Player of the Year not so much by vote as by acclamation The concept of true stardom has changed. No longer is what a player achieves on the ball enough.

Understanding has changed. Fans and media are far more savvy nowadays.

A player is appreciated now for how he creates space for his team-mates.

Maybe Messi was not seen at his most extravagant in Barcelona’s latest, single-goal win over a reviving Real Madrid, but he played his role in the team to perfection. And, on the rare occasion when opportunity presented, he accelerated, twisted and pirouetted around two, three or four opponents.

Discussion will continue about whether Guardiola sometimes uses Messi too deep when his twinkling feet wreak the ultimate damage on

Master and apprentice…Messi and Maradona

and top player at the World Youth Cup in the Netherlands and carried off an Argentinian Footballer of the Year prize for good measure. FIFPro, the Champions League and Copa America have all fallen under the player-prize magic of little Leo. Argentinian football has given the worldwide game a never-ending string of outstanding, even great, players: Orsi, Monti, Nestor Rossi, Pedernera, Moreno, Di Stefano, Sivori, Artime, Kempes, Maradona...and now Messi.

He is World Player of the Year not so much by vote as by acclamation.

Diego Maradona has hailed Messi as “my successor” and Maradona does not concede comparisons readily. But then, El Pibe needs to encourage Messi.

Argentina’s progress to the World Cup finals was anything but impressive and Maradona did not appear to know how to bring the best out of his finest player.

But if the world champion of 1986 wants to emulate, as a manager, his own playing achievement, then he needs Messi at his best in South Africa.

Maradona or not, Messi’s own ambition may make up for whatever is missing. Then he will be waltzing off with this award all over again this time next year.

Keir Radnedge

Top 10 Players of 2009 Player 1) Lionel Messi 2) Andres Iniesta 3) Xavi 4) Cristiano Ronaldo 5) Zlatan Ibrahimovic 6) David Villa 7) Diego Forlan 8) Fernando Torres 9) Wayne Rooney 10) Didier Drogba

Club Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona Man Utd/Real Madrid Inter/Barcelona Valencia Atletico Madrid Liverpool Manchester United Chelsea

Country % of vote Argentina 43.2 Spain 21.5 Spain 11.2 Portugal 6.4 Sweden 4.2 Spain 2.5 Uruguay 2.1 Spain 1.3 England 0.8 Ivory Coast 0.5

Celebrating…Messi after his 2009 Champions League final goal

Other World Soccer Award winners 2009

Biggest ever percentage of the vote…

Barca with 75.9 and Guardiola with 62.1

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Pep Guardiola, Barcelona TEAM OF THE YEAR: Barcelona

Wonderkid…

Kun Aguero beat Milan and Brazil’s Alexandre Pato

YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Sergio Aguero, Atletico Madrid & Argentina

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE DECADE

RONALDINHO

2000-09

Icon…Ronaldinho graced the cover on multiple occasions

The “Dinho” question

R

onaldo de Assis Moreira, better known as Ronaldinho, is World Soccer’ Soccer’s Player of the Decade. Based on the votes cast by readers in the ten annual votes between 2000 and 2009, the Brazilian – who was our World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005 – is the outstanding performer of the past ten years.

Ronaldinho finished ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as other winners of the individual award, including Michael Owen, Pavel Nedved and Fabio Cannavaro.

The unique accolade, an award predominantly for his superhuman efforts for Barcelona, is a far cry from his current situation in Italy. But is Ronaldinho finally about to deliver again?

When the Brazilian ace was formally “presented” to the Milan faithful last year, he was greeted at the San Siro like some sort of all-conquering hero, wooed by pulsating samba rhythms, a firework display and a 30,000-strong crowd.

Eighteen months later, those same Milan supporters might be entitled to ask themselves if he was worth all the fuss.

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Even no less a figure than Pier Silvio Berlusconi – son of the prime minister and the club’s owner, Silvio Berlusconi – recently criticised the club’s estimated £16 million purchase of Ronaldinho from Barcelona.

“If it had been up to me, I would have gone down another, more long-term road rather than buying a player for the immediate short term,” Berlusconi junior told reporters during a TV business fair in Monte Carlo in November, in reference to “Il Dentone”(the big toothy one).

When Brazil coach Dunga left Ronaldinho out of the squad for the World Cup qualifiers last autumn, there were those even willing to speculate this was the end of the international road for him.

Unconfirmed sources told us that a dejected “Dinho” was even thinking of chucking it all in. He had had enough.

Dunga, meanwhile, merely urged people to leave the player alone and allow him to regain his best form.

Which, curiously, is what he appears

Samba style… celebrating a goal

2000-09 RONALDINHO to have done at the end of 2009, when there were tantalising indications that perhaps, just perhaps, the former World Player of the Year might still be capable of getting back up there. As Milan have switched to a more attacking line-up (Alexandre Pato-Clarence SeedorfRonaldinho playing behind Marco Borriello), Ronaldinho has come up with a variety of glorious assists for either compatriot Pato or Borriello.

Even on a disappointing night which saw Milan held 1-1 in the Champions League by Marseille, Ronaldinho was arguably the best news of the game for Milan. As the former European champions struggled to contain a determined Marseille in the second half, Ronaldinho was noticeable not only for the quality of his play but also, unusually for him, for the enthusiasm with which he covered and chased back. At one point he was seen excitedly urging the San Siro faithful to get behind the team.

If owner Berlusconi had written the script, that is how it would have gone.

As far as the powers that be at Milan are concerned, this just has to be Ronaldinho’s season. Last summer, of course, he may well have served as

a huge fan, believing that Ronaldinho can write new chapters in Milan’s history by reproducing the sort of form which saw him win the World Soccer World Player of the Year, FIFA Player of Year and European Player of the Year awards, not to mention the Champions League title, during his five seasons (from 2003 to 2008) with Barcelona.

By the end of last season, beset by a series of niggling injuries and regularly consigned to the bench by Ancelotti, there was little sign of such a revival for Ronaldinho. The season had begun well with him picking the best possible match to score his first Serie A goal for Milan: namely, a winning header against Inter in the first derby of last season.

But that perfect start proved to be a mirage and, to a large extent, it was all downhill from then on.

It may well be that the change of coach at Milan has proved beneficial for Ronaldinho. When he says that it is easy to work with the new man in charge – compatriot Leonardo – one tends to believe him, if for nothing else because the two men speak the same language: both literally and also in terms of their football philosophies. There seems little

Now in this post-Kaka, post-Paolo Maldini, post-Carlo Ancelotti campaign, Milan badly need “Dinho” to do the business out there on the pitch rather than on the transfer market a pawn in the chess-war of neverending rivalry that underlines all relations between Milan and city cousins Inter. He tended to look like Milan’s answer to the bold move which a month earlier had seen Inter hire the “Special One”, former Porto and Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho.

Now in this post-Kaka, post-Paolo Maldini, post-Carlo Ancelotti campaign, Milan badly need “Dinho” to do the business out there on the pitch rather than on the transfer market. Media tycoon Berlusconi has always been

Technique...silky on the ball

doubt, too, that Leonardo has put his own neck on the line by investing in a Ronaldinho revival – something that may just be beginning to pay a dividend.

“I find it really difficult to be stuck on the bench,” says Ronaldinho. “I’m glad only when I get a chance to do the thing I like best – to play. I was unhappy but now I’m enjoying my football again.”

Some Milanello observers also point to his more professional lifestyle. In other words, these days Ronaldinho spends much more time on the training pitch than on the dance floor.

Those observations may be a trifle unkind but it was significant to hear an old Milan warrior like Franco Baresi recently highlight Ronaldinho as the key figure in an overall Milan seasonal watershed. “Milan’s seasonal start was not easy but the team looks to me to have refound morale, enthusiasm and self-belief, starting with Ronaldinho,” Baresi observed.

Milan fans will be hoping he is right.

They will be hoping that at 29 he can climb back to where he once was, right at the very top of the greasy pole of world acclaim.

Paddy Agnew

Top 30 Players of the 2000s 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10)

Player Ronaldinho Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo Thierry Henry Kaka Fabio Cannavaro Pavel Nedved Michael Owen Luis Figo Zinedine Zidane

Country Brazil Argentina Portugal France Brazil Italy Czech Republic England Portugal France

Points 781 759 708 619 567 401 394 330 290 270

Top of the pile…

Ronaldinho won the vote based on his time at Barca

11) Raul 12) Ronaldo 13) Andriy Shevchenko 14) Andres Iniesta 15) Michael Ballack 16) Xavi 17) Rivaldo 18) Fernando Torres 19=) Samuel Eto’o 19=) Frank Lampard

Spain Brazil Ukraine Spain Germany Spain Brazil Spain Cameroon England

261 260 230 215 180 163 150 149 146 146

England Portugal Italy Netherlands Germany Italy Ivory Coast Argentina Brazil Spain

134 130 107 99 90 82 79 77 73 59

High finish…but Thierry Henry is the only player in the top ten not to win our award

21) 22) 23) 24) 25) 26) 27) 28) 29) 30)

Steven Gerrard Deco Francesco Totti Ruud van Nistelrooy Oliver Kahn Paolo Maldini Didier Drogba Juan Roman Riquelme Adriano Iker Casillas

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

XAVI

2010

Rare…celebrating a goal

Recognition for pass master

X

avi did not score 55 goals in 51 games for Barcelona in 2010 like Leo Messi. And he wasn’t top scorer in the Champions League like Messi either. He didn’t win a domestic double and the European Cup like Wesley Sneijder. He didn’t score the key goals in a cup final, the league’s decisive game and the Champions League final like Diego Milito. And he didn’t score the winner at the World Cup like Andres Iniesta.

In fact, he didn’t score any goals at the World Cup, let alone five of them like David Villa, Diego Forlan, Thomas Muller or Sneijder.

But Xavi is still a worthy winner of World Soccer’s Player of the Year award.

In fact, he may even be an overdue one.

There is a kind of embarrassment, almost guilt, about declaring him the best player in the world this year, as if we want to rectify the mistake before it is too late – and Xavi is 30 years old, after all. It is as if we’re all saying sorry for taking so long to realise just how good you are, for not appreciating the brilliance in your simplicity.

This award feels like it is being handed out not just for 2010 but for the Tempo… controlling possession

2010 XAVI

Top 10 Players of 2010 Player 1) Xavi 2) Lionel Messi 3) Wesley Sneijder 4) Diego Forlan 5) Andres Iniesta 6) Diego Milito 7) David Villa 8) Iker Casillas 9) Samuel Eto’o 10) Arjen Robben

Club Barcelona Barcelona Internazionale Atletico Madrid Barcelona Internazionale Valencia/Barcelona Real Madrid Internazionale Bayern Munich

Country % of vote Spain 25.8 Argentina 24.1 Netherlands 17.3 Uruguay 15.8 Spain 10.8 Argentina 1.2 Spain 1.1 Spain 0.9 Cameroon 0.5 Netherlands 0.4

Spain legend…now a world champion in addition to a European champion

previous year too. And the year before that. It’s as if we are awarding Xavi for an era. His era.

But it’s not just an apology for taking so long. There is a kind of morally superior simplicity to it too, a kind of footballing puritanism, a moral duty to recognise those that make it happen – not for themselves, but for others. It is also sorry for getting blinded by all that stardust, by the goals and the tricks, by the men who dominate the agenda and take the glory. Xavi rarely takes the glory; instead, he gives it.

It is not that he is a better player than the rest, which he is, but that he makes the rest better players too. That is what we have come to recognise. It is what people like about him.

“I need team-mates, people to combine with,” Xavi says. “Without team-mates football has no meaning.

I am no one without them.”

more passes than their entire midfield put together. And he is doing the same again this season. In the last 12 months, a player has completed 100 or more passes just 24 times in the whole of Europe. On 12 of those occasions that player was Xavi.

As Dani Alves insists, Xavi does not just pass the ball, he forces the play by making the angles for his team-mates, by obliging them to move with his passes.

“Xavi,” the Brazilian says, “plays in the future.” He controls the game, dominating the opposition, leading his side. He is the ideologue, the metronome, the conductor.

And not just for any old sides either. He does it for arguably the finest teams Spanish football has ever seen, maybe even the finest the world has ever seen.

It is hard to disagree with the argument that Xavi is the greatest central midfielder Spain has produced.

Tight…this year’s contest was one of the closes in the award’s history

Other World Soccer Award winners 2010 Three times award winner…

Mourinho won the treble with Internazionale

It is hard to disagree with the argument that Xavi is the greatest central midfielder Spain has produced The response is obvious in that they might well be no one without you. They certainly wouldn’t be the same. Perhaps not even Leo Messi.

Xavi refers to himself as “basically a passer”, but that simple phrase contains so much more. Spanish TV commentator Andres Montes called him “Humphrey Bogart” because, like Sam in Casablanca, Xavi was asked to play it again. And again. And again. In the clasico last season he completed almost 100 passes at the Santiago Bernabeu; this season he did reach three figures at Camp Nou – 114 to be precise. And, unusually for him, he also scored the opening goal.

By the end of last season, Xavi had completed over 400 more passes than any other player in Spain and over 400 more than any player from any other club in the Champions League. In the game against Arsenal he completed

It is just a pity it has taken until now for everyone to argue it. Still, at least we realised before it was too late.

In 2008, Spain were European champions. In 2009, Barcelona won the treble. In 2010, Spain won the World Cup. They all did so playing wonderful football, unique football. There is a clarity of identity about those teams that has possibly never been seen before. That identity is Xavi’s identity. In each of those successes, Xavi touched the ball more than anyone else and yet, each time he got it, he had just one thought in his mind: give it to someone else.

Xavi was the man dictating the pace, the flow, the speed, the game; game after game after game. As the Spanish say: “The current Spain team and the current Barcelona side dance to Xavi’s tune.” And that tune is the perfect symphony.

Sid Lowe

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Jose Mourinho, Internazionale Top two…

Mesut Ozil and Muller polled 73 per cent between them in the Young Player category

YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Thomas Muller, Bayern Munich & Germany TEAM OF THE YEAR: Spain

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Lionel MESSI 2011

Regaining the crow wn…the 2009 winner tops the 20 011 poll

Recordbreaking enigma

L

ionel Messi is the overwhelming choice as World Soccer’s Soccer’ World Player of the Year. The brilliant Barcelona and Argentina ace collected more than 60 per cent of the votes cast in our annual poll – an all-time record.

It is the second time Messi has topped the World Soccer poll. He was the victor in 2009, but lost out to his Barca team-mate Xavi last year. Xavi finished third this time, behind Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid and Portugal.

There were three Barca players in the top ten – Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta – while five of the top ten play in La Liga.

Brazilian starlet Neymar is the only player in the top ten based outside of Europe. The Santos youngster finished sixth in the World Player poll, but won the Young Player award ahead of Borussia Dortmund’s Mario Gotze.

Barcelona cleaned up, winning the Team award and coach Pep Guardiola chosen as Manager of the Year. But it is Messi once again who take the plaudits.

At the age of just 24 he has amassed an astonishing CV, with the standout moments from an impressive list of individual and collective honours being the five La Liga-winning sides he has

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been part of and the two Champions League final victories he played in.

So, as he is crowned World Player of the Year again, just what else does Messi have left to achieve?

Well, in his homeland not everyone is fully convinced yet, and they point to a glaring gap in that impressive list of honours. They believe that Messi has still to deliver for his country.

“Messi is the best player in the world,” said Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella recently. “He plays extraordinarily well for Barcelona, so then when he plays just well for Argentina it seems like he is underperforming.”

The most tangible, and indeed most impressive, aspect of Messi’s game is, of course, his scoring record. Since Frank Rijkaard handed him his Barca debut in 2004, his strike rate has continued to improve every year, culminating with a staggering 53 goals in 55 matches by the end of the 2010-11 season.

In the current campaign he averages better than a goal every game and may well reach Cesar Rodriguez’s club record of 235 goals by the end of this term.

Factoring in an assist for every two goals that he scores, his form is nothing short of sensational. But the contrast between his displays for Argentina and those for

Messi magic… celebrating his goal in the 2011 Champions League final

2011 LIONEL MESSI Barcelona is stark. For example, his overall strike rate at club level is 0.71; for Argentina, with 19 goals from 66 games, that rate drops to 0.28.

More nationalist sectors of fans and the media in Argentina have questioned his commitment to the national side, suggesting he feels more Spanish than Argentinian, having emigrated at such an early age. His debt to Barcelona is evident as the club paid for the medical treatment he needed as a teenager when both Newell’s Old Boys and River Plate refused. But instead of displaying little interest in turning out for his country, if anything Messi often appears to try too hard, attempting to resolve situations alone. There are also broader issues that shed light on why his performance levels differ with Barca and Argentina.

One comparison is the quality of the squad that surrounds him. The current Barcelona team is widely considered to be one of the greatest club sides of all time. In the 55-player shortlist for their World XI, FIFPro included an entire Barcelona starting XI, with Victor Valdes, Dani Alves, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Eric Abidal, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio

in South America right now, and indeed one of the best in the world, with Oscar Tabarez having developed a finely-tuned team. When asked about this year’s Copa America triumph, Tabarez said he had simply copied Jose Pekerman’s blueprint for developing the youth-team players.

Pekerman was one of Messi’s early mentors. Having produced spectacular results with the Argentina Under-20s, he took over the national team in 2004 and a year later handed Messi his full debut.

Pekerman soon left, however, and since then Messi has worked under Alfio Basile, Diego Maradona, Sergio Batista and now Sabella. From Basile’s devotion to playing with a classic enganche (playmaker), to Maradona’s back line of four central defenders, to Batista’s aim to replicate the Barcelona system – but not push his full-backs past the halfway line – there has neither been continuity in the personnel nor the approach.

This contrasts with Barca, where Messi has played for just two first-team coaches: Rijkaard and Guardiola. As an institution, Barca have maintained a coherent policy in the youth system for decades – one which is now paying huge dividends.

At the age of just 24 he has amassed an astonishing CV…so, as he is crowned World Player of the Year again, just what else does Messi have left to achieve?

Busquets, Cesc Fabregas and David Villa lining up alongside Messi.

Representing Argentina, along with Leo, was Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero.

The shortlist for the FIFA Ballon d’Or offered a similar trend, with seven Barca players put forward with Messi, and again only himself and Aguero flying the flag for Argentina.

These nominations lend weight to the views held in Argentina that the country is not producing the same number of first-class players as it once did.

Individual brilliance, however, is only part of the story. Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez were the only Uruguayans in the FIFPro list, but Uruguay are the top side

Trophy king…three times Champions League winner

Despite the merry-go-round of Argentina coaches, Messi soon became the central creative force for Argentina, especially after Juan Roman Riquelme quit the national team. Yet in taking on greater responsibility for the team, his goalscoring suffered. Ironically, the player said to be Maradona’s natural heir produced his worst return under Maradona the coach, with just three goals in 16 appearances.

In the aftermath of the Copa America embarrassment, Sabella was handed the task of swiftly turning around the results, and focusing on building a team for the 2014 World Cup. One of his first decisions was to change his captain, and in turn award Messi with another honour this year: making him skipper.

As Sabella himself has admitted, Messi is far from being the tub-thumping caudillo, the charismatic leader, but he expects him to lead by example.

“Messi is the key player,” he says.

“Whenever he has the ball you expect something to happen.”

It is this expectancy that grows with every dip of the shoulder, every dribble, every geometrically perfect pass and every hat-trick.

Joel Richards

Top 10 Players of 2011 Player 1) Lionel Messi 2) Cristiano Ronaldo 3) Xavi 4) Luis Suarez 5) Andres Iniesta 6) Diego Forlan 7) Neymar 8) Radamel Falcao 9) Zlatan Ibrahimovic 10) Robin van Persie

Club Barcelona Real Madrid Barcelona Liverpool Barcelona Atletico Madrid/Inter Santos Porto/Atletico Madrid Milan Arsenal

Country % of vote Argentina 60.2 Portugal 9.3 Spain 7.6 Uruguay 5.6 Spain 2.6 Uruguay 2.5 Brazil 2.3 Colombia 2.2 Sweden 1.8 Netherlands 1.6

The top three…(left to right) Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi and Lionel Messi

Other World Soccer Award winners 2011 Perfect Pep… Guardiola pipped Uruguay’s Oscar Tabarez by just 1.7 per cent

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Pep Guardiola, Barcelona TEAM OF THE YEAR: Barcelona Young gun…

Neymar registered 29.3 per cent of the vote

YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Neymar, Santos & Brazil

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Lionel MESSI

2012

Three-time winner…Messi equals Brazilian Ronaldo’s record

It’s that man again

L

ionel Messi was the clear winner of World Soccer’s World Player of the Year award. The Barcelona and Argentina star collected more than twice as many votes as his nearest rivals, Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid and Portugal, and club-mate, Andres Iniesta of Spain.

It is the third time Messi has won the award, having previously triumphed in 2009 and 2011. He joins Brazil’s Ronaldo who is the only other player to have won the award on three occasions.

There was also recognition for Spain’s remarkable achievement in winning the 2012 European Championship. Vicente del Bosque was the clear winner of the World Manager of the Year award – polling over double the votes of secondplaced Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho – while Spain were the overwhelming choice as World Team of the Year – winning almost 40 per cent more of the vote than second-placed Zambia; shock Africa Cup of Nations winners earlier in the year.

This year, for the first time in the

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Golazo…Messi celebrates

2012 LIONEL MESSI

Top 10 Players of 2012 Player 1) Lionel Messi 2) Cristiano Ronaldo 3) Andres lniesta 4) Andrea Pirlo 5) Radamel Falcao 6) Neymar 7) Iker Casillas 8) Xavi 9) Didier Drogba 10) Eden Hazard

Club Barcelona Real Madrid Barcelona Juventus Atletico Madrid Santos Real Madrid Barcelona Chelsea/Shanghai Shenhua Lille/Chelsea

Country Argentina Portugal Spain Italy Colombia Brazil Spain Spain Ivory Coast Belgium

% of vote

47.33 19.01 9.77 6.10 5.95 3.60 2.30 1.78 1.77 0.37

Bright spark…with his talent and in Barca’s eye-catching kit

30-year history of the awards, the votes from readers were combined with those from an independent panel of experts. The final vote was weighted to ensure 50 per cent for the reader votes and 50 per cent for those from the panel.

Messi was the overwhelming winner in both categories. A huge 40.13 per

per cent of the panellists’ vote, finishing joint-sixth in the final standings.

Players who made the top ten in the respective reader and panel polls but who failed to make the combined overall top ten include Ivory Coast’s midfield powerhouse Yaya Toure (reader poll), and Egypt playmaker Mohamed Aboutrika, Sweden striker Zlatan

It is the third time Messi has won the award, having previously triumphed in 2009 and 2011. He joins Brazil’s Ronaldo who is the only other player to have won the award on three occasions cent of readers voted him the world’s best player, while 54.54 per cent of the expert panel awarded him the top prize.

The player with the biggest discrepancy in the voting was Atletico Madrid and Colombia striker Radamel Falcao – 10.99 per cent of readers voted him as the world’s best player to see him place third in the table, but he won only 0.91

Fans’ favourite…Falcao should have been higher according to our readers

Other World Soccer Award winners 2012 Dominance…Spain win Euro 2012 to continue bossing the international scene

Ibrahimovic and Spanish duo Juan Mata and Sergio Ramos (panel poll).

This year also sees an end to our Young Player of the Year category, which ran for seven successive years.

Messi won the accolade three times – to date, the only player to win both the Young and main Player categories.

Gavin Hamilton TEAM OF THE YEAR: Spain Mastermind…

Del Bosque

Integral…Leo’s been a key man in World Cup qualifying for Argentina

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Vicente del Bosque, Spain

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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Cristiano RONALDO 2013

Football’s finest…class of 2013

The pursuit of perfection

C

ristiano Ronaldo is World Soccer’s World Player of the Year for the second time. The Portugal star finished ahead of Barca’s Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich in our annual poll.

The winner in 2008 was runner-up to Messi when the Argentinian won his third World Player title last year. But the tables have been turned and Ronaldo is the clear winner this time around. The award is recognition of Ronaldo’s stunning form for Real Madrid over the past 12 months, as well as his starring role in Portugal’s World Cup qualification.

In November, he scored all four goals in his country’s play-off victory. PSG’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose Sweden side were defeated by Portugal in those games, finished fourth in the poll.

And even in the games where Ronaldo didn’t turn up, he still made the headlines.

Forty-five thousand Cristiano Ronaldos turned up for Real Madrid’s Champions League game against Galatasaray at the end of November. But the real Ronaldo didn’t. Not on the pitch, anyway. For once, the Portuguese attacker was not tearing up defences, instead, he was up in the glass-fronted VIP box, recovering from an injury as down on the pitch his team-mates beat the Turkish side 4-0.

Not that it stopped Ronaldo being the protagonist. In the 77th minute, the Santiago Bernabeu launched into a chant of “Cristiano Ronaldo, balon de oro”. At the time, fans lifted masks to

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their faces. It was a surreal sight, a kind of Being Cristiano Ronaldo. They had been handing the masks out before the game: 45,000 of them. Ronaldo lifted a hand, grateful for their support.

It is unanimous. Madrid’s fans might have taken their time but now there are no doubts; they have embraced him wholeheartedly. Their former reticence just looks bizarre. Some are even daring to think the unthinkable: could Ronaldo be the best player that has ever played for Real Madrid?

No player will ever have the impact on the club that Alfredo Di Stefano did – the man without whom modern Madrid simply does not make sense – but the question hovers.

Certainty, Ronaldo’s statistics make for frightening reading. This is the man who scored his first 200 Real Madrid goals in just 197 games, who got to 150 quicker than a goal a game and who has just kept on accelerating. He recently hit

his 23rd hat-trick for the club.

In the past four league campaigns, Ronaldo scored 26, 40, 46 and 34 goals, and he is on course to break those totals this term. He is already the fifth-top league scorer in the club’s history, having overtaken Ferenc Puskas.

By the end of the year, he is likely to have gone beyond Hugo Sanchez and possibly Carlos Santillana too.

It is impossible to imagine him not smashing every record going.

He is just relentless and the pursuit of perfection means that he never lets up. He has had an extreme cold chamber installed at his home which aids recovery, and coaching staff tell the story of the night when Madrid returned from an away game in the Champions League. When the bus arrived at Valdebebas gone five in the morning, the players picked up their cars and headed home. Ronaldo didn’t; he instead called on the physios and

Portugal’s saviour...

Ronaldo

2013 CRISTIANO RONALDO underwent a series of exercises. It is, they say, typical of him.

As Gerard Pique says: “He’s the same (as he always was). He’s a player I have always admired because he’s a worker who always wants more and more and more. He is a machine, he’s so ambitious.

He’s naturally very strong but never, ever stops fighting to improve.”

Right now, those who say he is the best are growing in numbers. The debate rages, as ever. Not just about who is the best player in the world but also - if indeed it is a different question – who has had the best 2013?

There are factors that go against Ronaldo. Last season he did not win anything. Madrid were knocked out in the Champions League semi-final, finished 15 points behind Barcelona and lost the Copa del Rey final to Atletico Madrid, a game in which Ronaldo was sent off. Meanwhile, Portugal did not qualify automatically for the World Cup. Yet even the latter situation ended up going in Ronaldo’s favour. An obligation became an opportunity and Ronaldo took it with both hands. Rarely has an individual so decisively marked such an important game as when he hit a brilliant hat-trick against Sweden in the World Cup play-off. It was billed as Zlatan versus Cristiano and there was only one winner, even though Ibrahimovic scored

Messi had won four FIFA World Player awards in a row. Then he scored a hattrick in his very next game: he celebrated the first by standing to attention and saluting, commander style.

In Madrid, wild and ridiculous conspiracy theories abounded, and accusations of FIFA bias and manipulation flew. But in the wake of the Sweden defeat, voting for the FIFA Ballon d’Or was reopened.

So much for bias. Suddenly, Ronaldo appeared to be the favourite again. Franck Ribery’s chances seemed diminished.

“I don’t need big gestures to know I’m the best,” Ribery said bitterly after the Ronaldo masks were brought out at the Bernabeu.

But without the goals, without the Portuguese player’s performances, the gesture would have been a hollow one.

It was not just that mind-blowing display against Sweden that makes Ronaldo a strong case. This has been an extraordinary year for him, something that is reflected in the 28-year-old coming out on top in World Soccer’s vote.

After 14 weeks of the season he was top scorer in La Liga; after five matchdays he is top scorer in the Champions League too. For a second time he finished as the Champions League’s top goalscorer last season. It was the first time in four years that Messi didn’t finish on top of the pile.

Some are even daring to think the unthinkable: could Cristiano Ronaldo be the best player that has ever played for Real Madrid? twice. Once again, Ronaldo had taken the chance to make a point.

One man who said that he preferred Lionel Messi was the FIFA president Sepp Blatter in his now infamous performance at Oxford University when, like a drunk grandad at a wedding, he did a pretty lamentable “impression” of Ronaldo, lurching up like some kind of robotic dinosaur. “Ronaldo is like a military commander,” he said.

Ronaldo’s response was furious at first. Then it was funny. He released a statement that said Blatter’s display had shown the “respect” that FIFA had for him and said that he now “understood” certain things - presumably the fact that

Masks…45,000 Cristiano Ronaldos

And he was the first player in Europe’s biggest leagues to reach 50 goals in the calendar year of 2013. No one has scored more Champions League goals in 2013 either.

Ronaldo appears unstoppable. He also appears more contented than ever.

It took a while for Madrid’s supporters to warm to him – after all it is not much more than a year since he failed to celebrate a goal against Granada and afterwards admitted he was “sad”.

His relationship with the president Florentino Perez was strained and the player warned him that he was not sure he wanted to continue. Now, he is going to the World Cup and is now the best-paid player on the planet, having renewed his contract at Madrid.

A future without him simply seems unthinkable: he costs Real Madrid over €40 million a year in wages but no one considers it anything other than money well spent. Ronaldo is World Soccer’s Player of the Year. Real Madrid’s fans love him so much that they pulled on 45,000 masks to show it.

Sid Lowe

Top 10 Players of 2013 Player 1) Cristiano Ronaldo 2) Lionel Messi 3) Franck Ribery 4) Zlatan Ibrahimovic 5) Arjen Robben 6) Neymar 7) Philipp Lahm 8) Robin van Persie 9) Robert Lewandowski 10) Gareth Bale

Club Real Madrid Barcelona Bayern Munich Paris Saint-Germain Bayern Munich Santos/Barcelona Bayern Munich Manchester United Borussia Dortmund Tottenham/Real Madrid

Country Points Portugal 1075 Argentina 926 France 870 Sweden 658 Netherlands 324 Brazil 286 Germany 255 Netherlands 251 Poland 250 Wales 187

Captains…Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who finished fourth, with Ronaldo

Other World Soccer Award winners 2013 Undisputed...Bayern polled 118 points – four other teams received just one vote each

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Bayern Munich Runaway…Jupp Heynckes polled 86 points – second-placed Jurgen Klopp only polled15

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Jupp Heynckes, Bayern Munich

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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Cristiano RONALDO 2014

Untouchable…Cristiano Ronaldo has simply been unstoppable

Individual brilliance shines through

C

ristiano Ronaldo is World Soccer’s World Player of Soccer’ the Year for the second year running after a brilliant 12 months for Real Madrid, who won their tenth European Cup in May, with the Portuguese forward scoring in the 4-1 victory over Atletico Madrid in the final in Lisbon.

Ronaldo, who won the award in 2008 while playing for Manchester United, saw off competition from several of Germany’s victorious World Cup side, as well as his La Liga rival, Argentina star Lionel Messi, who finished in third place.

Germany, not surprisingly, claimed the World Team of the Year award, after their victory over Argentina in the World Cup final and an extraordinary 7-1 demolition of Brazil in the semifinal. Their coach Joachim Low is World Manager of the Year, finishing ahead of Diego Simeone of Atletico Madrid.

Against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League final was where the 2013-14 season ended for Ronaldo.

But it begun back in the summer in pre-season training in the USA when he picked up the ball, sprinted past an opponent and thumped a shot into the net before turning to the bench

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as if to say: “Did you see that?” On the bench were Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, and club president Florentino Perez. And, yes, they had seen it. Ancelotti shrugged and smiled. What can you do?

The answer, Ronaldo hoped, was play him, of course.

Madrid’s season was about to start and Ronaldo was determined to play. The club wanted to be cautious, doctors had advised them to take things slowly, and Ancelotti tried to rein Ronaldo in. But there he was, out to

prove he was ready. And when he does things like that, it’s hard to argue. Ronaldo’s ambition remains limitless, the appetite voracious.

In the closing weeks of last season, Ronaldo was not fully fit and he was unable to make the impact he would have liked on the World Cup. He scored just once, against Ghana, and Portugal went out in the group stage. His World Cup record reads three goals: one in 2006, a penalty against Iran, when he was named the tournament’s Best Young Player, one in 2010 against

Celebrating…

Ronaldo after Real’s fourth goal in the Champions League final

2014 CRISTIANO RONALDO North Korea, the seventh in a 7-0 win, and that one against Ghana. At times against the USA this summer it was hard to watch, yet it was impressive too, he could hardly move, yet he still provided a stunning cross for the goal.

Perhaps he should have stopped, but he wouldn’t stop. He had missed the Copa del Rey final and he was not going to miss any more games, playing through the pain, determined. He scored in the Champions League final, the decima had arrived, in Lisbon. And although Brazil will have hurt Ronaldo, not least because it could prove to be his last World Cup, it is a measure of just how brilliant he has been over the past 12 months that it did not count against him in World Soccer’s vote – it is rare indeed for our winner in a World Cup year to not be a World Cup winner.

Besides, success in Lisbon will never be taken from him. Moreover, he had been the tournament’s top scorer, setting a new Champions League record, and Brazil would also have made him even more determined to leave it behind this season, to prove he is still the world’s best player. And so there he was back for the start of a new season, belting in goals in front of his coach and proving a point.

Ronaldo was still not quite ready, though, and three weeks in he was

keep on improving.

Ronaldo does not want anything, or anyone, to get in his way. Gerard Pique has described him as a “machine”. It was seen by some as a backhanded compliment but it is the ultimate compliment.

“If he wins the World Player award, it will be almost boring,” said Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller. That too is a compliment. Ronaldo never gets bored.

The pursuit of perfection, the constant pushing of the boundaries, the fine tuning, drive him. He can always do more. He is the world’s best player, convinced of his talent, but he works like a player who thinks he is no good and must try harder than all the rest.

Ronaldo’s success has not fallen into his lap, the physique and the technique have been worked on, over and over.

His game has evolved and become more complete just as his body has changed. He has kept on improving and learning, even those who cannot bring themselves to like him cannot help but admire him. Even his team-mates, professionals at the top of their game, think he is different.

“He really manages himself well,” says Paul Clement, Real Madrid’s assistant coach. “I remember one game where we came back at three in the morning and he went to have

“If he carries on like this, he could become the best player ever”

Former Real Madrid striker Raul

forced to miss the game versus Real Sociedad – Madrid lost – and dedicate a fortnight to getting fit. When he came back, he immediately scored and he hasn’t stopped since.

If the ambition can at times be problematic, it is what makes Cristiano Ronaldo what he is. The relentless pursuit of more, and more, and more, lies behind his success. When he collected the ESM Golden Shoe prize, Ronaldo announced that he aspires to be the best player in history. He means it, too. And even if he does not make it, the pursuit will provide the impetus to

La decima…lifting Real’s tenth European Cup

an ice bath. Another example six in the morning, we had come back from Istanbul and there’s the physio giving him a rub down”.

“It’s hard to know what to say about him,” Carlo Ancelotti admits. “We’re going to have to invent new words to describe him,” claims Sergio Ramos.

The solution is to turn to the figures.

The trouble is that by the time you have written them down, they have changed. Records fall weekly.

Last season, Ronaldo was Europe’s top scorer in the league, joint-winner of the ESM Golden Shoe with Luis Suarez, as well as the Champions League’s top scorer. This season, finally forced to rest and start again, he returned and scored goal after goal. He did not want to waste any more time. For the fourth year in a row he has scored over 60 goals for club and country.

So far this season Ronaldo has scored 25 times in the league. That’s enough goals to have been La Liga’s top scorer 42 times, more than half the league seasons ever – with 23 games still to play.

Sid Lowe

Top 10 Players of 2014 Player 1) Cristiano Ronaldo 2) Manuel Neuer 3) Lionel Messi 4) Arjen Robben 5) Thomas Muller 6) Philipp Lahm 7) James Rodriguez 8) Luis Suarez 9) Angel Di Maria 10) Toni Kroos

Club Real Madrid Bayern Munich Barcelona Bayern Munich Bayern Munich Bayern Munich Monaco/Real Madrid Liverpool/Barcelona Real Madrid/Man Utd Bayern Munich/Real Madrid

Country Points Portugal 928 Germany 789 Argentina 593 Netherlands 458 Germany 354 Germany 264 Colombia 243 Uruguay 218 Argentina 183 Germany 168

Trio…our top three pose at the Ballon d’Or award ceremony

Other World Soccer Award winners 2014 World champions…

Germany

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Germany Pinnacle…

Low lifting the World Cup trophy

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Joachim Low, Germany

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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Lionel MESSI

The best…masterful Messi

Scaling new heights

A

year on from Argentina’s defeat in the 2014 World Cup final, Lionel Messi is back on top of the world.

The Barcelona and Argentina star is World Soccer’ss Player of the Year for a record fourth time, having previously won the award back in 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Messi’s victory in 2015 means he overtakes his great arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo (winner in 2008, 2013 and 2014) and his predecessor at Barca, the Brazilian Ronaldo (1996, 1997 and 2002).

Debate will, of course, rage as to who can lay claim to the title of the world’s greatest-ever player. While Argentina’s defeat in Brazil has ensured that World Cup winners Pele and Diego Maradona can still keep a hand on the crown, Messi did everything possible in 2015 to remind the world of his brilliance.

A hugely impressive treble of Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey was complemented by the UEFA Super Cup and, at the year’s end, the Club World Cup. The only cloud on Barcelona’s horizon was a defeat to Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Super Cup. Even then, there was a silver lining as Messi’s goal in the second leg, albeit with Bilbao having taken a four-goal lead from the first leg, was one of six competitions in which he scored in

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Technique…wand of a left foot

2015

2015 LIONEL MESSI

Top 10 Players of 2015 Player 1) Lionel Messi 2) Cristiano Ronaldo 3) Neymar 4) Luis Suarez 5) Robert Lewandowski 6) Thomas Muller 7) Andres Iniesta 8) Zlatan Ibrahimovic 9) Paul Pogba 10) Manuel Neuer

Club Barcelona Real Madrid Barcelona Barcelona Bayern Munich Bayern Munich Barcelona Paris Saint-Germain Juventus Bayern Munich

Country Points Argentina 927 Portugal 702 Brazil 675 Uruguay 582 Poland 450 Germany 240 Spain 222 Sweden 196 France 137 Germany 131

Control…bringing down a long ball

2015. It was the second time in his career, after 2011, that he had scored in six different competitions in the calendar year.

Yet Messi began the year under a cloud. Amid reports of a clash with coach Luis Enrique on the training ground, he was missing from Barcelona’s traditional January open-training session.

The official line was that the Argentinian was sidelined with “gastroenteritis”, but midfielder Xavi inadvertently let slip in a pre-recorded interview that the aforementioned illness was used by club officials as “an excuse for when something else is going on”.

sports players in the country with disputed tax affairs.

However by October, his form on the pitch had reached new heights.

An incredible goal in the 2015 Spanish Cup final against Athletic Bilbao, when he took the ball from almost the halfway line, past four defenders before shooting past the keeper, brought comparisons with his 2007 goal against Getafe, itself a moment which had seen the teenage Messi compared with Maradona.

Victory over Juventus followed a few days later in the Champions League final in Berlin, although the limelight

Debate will, of course, rage as to who can lay claim to the title of the world’s greatest-ever player…Messi did everything possible in 2015 to remind the world of his brilliance Off the pitch, Messi and his father, Jorge, were having a testing time at the hands of the Spanish tax authorities.

The Spanish media were briefed that he might be prepared to quit Spain as he felt he was being singled out for special treatment compared with other elite

Barca’s No.10...clapping the fans

was taken, for once, by his team-mates Neymar and Luis Suarez.

A knee injury in September made him a doubt for the clasico against Real Madrid in November. By the time he appeared as a 57th-minute substitute, Barcelona were already three ahead and heading for a 4-0 thrashing of their great rivals.

And at December’s Club World Cup in Japan, he scored the opening goal against River Plate in the final – the first time in his career he had scored against an Argentinian side.

On a personal level, Messi is one year into a five-year contract with Barca that pays him a reported £16 million a year.

In September his partner, Antonela Roccuzzo, gave birth to a second son, Mateo, a brother for Thiago.

On and off the pitch, life could not get much better.

John Holmesdale

MSN…Barca’s attack occupied three of the top four spots in the poll

Other World Soccer Award winners 2015 Clean sweep…Barcelona won the Team award with 82 points – Chile were second with just nine

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Barcelona Winner…Luis Enrique got over 50 per cent of the vote

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Luis Enrique, Barcelona

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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Cristiano RONALDO 2016

Madrid’s main man…CR7

CR R7 number on ne again

C

ristiano Ronaldo, a European champion for both club and country in 2016, is World Player of the Year.

A winner in 2008, 2013 and 2014, he has now matched the achievement of Lionel Messi by claiming the award for a recorrd fourth time. The other winners in the 2016 World Soccer awards were first-tim me victors; Claudio Ranieri as Manager of the Year following his achieveements with Leicester City, who weere Team of the Year.

The World Player award is recognition of the most successful year of Ronaldo’s career. Aftter scoringg thee winningg penaalty when Real Madrid beat city rivals Atletico in a shootout to win the Champions League with Real Madrid, he then captained Portugal to their first senior international success, at Euro 2016.

Some time after the end of the Euros final, Ronaldo stood bare-chested before his victorious international team-mates in the Stade de France dressing room and delivered a speech. “I am so very happy; happy, happy, happy, happy,” Ronaldo told them. “I could repeat it a hundred times.”

It was genuine and emotional, and the fondness surrounding him is clear. It is a speech in which he called that day one of the happiest of his life, the most important moment. “I have already cried three or four times,” he admitted.

It was hardly surprising. He had waited a long time for this – and his

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country had waited even longer. At the end of an emotional night, Portugal had won a major tournament for the first time.

After 25 minutes of the final against France, he had been withdrawn with an injury. Watching from the touchline with an ice-pack strapped to his knee, he paraded up and down, desperately shouting and giving out instructions.

Some said he had become the coach, playing as much of a part off the pitch as he had on it. From there he saw an extra-time goal win the Euros. He called it “the one trophy that was missing”, the most important trophy of all those he has won. “Forget the individual trophies, the

Champions League, this one right here is the most important moment in my life.”

He had played in a final before, aged 19, but he and his Portugal team-mates were beaten, at home in Euro 2004, by Greece. Twelve years later, he was back.

Back in 2004, Ronaldo had just one winners’ medal in his career: the FA Cup, just secured with Manchester United. By the final of Euro 2016, he had won three Ballons d’Or, three Premier Leagues, one La Liga, two Copas del Rey and two Club World Cups. He’d just won the Champions League for the third time. He’d won it all... but not this, and that clearly mattered.

Ronaldo’s achievements are well

European champions…

Portugal’s first-ever silverware

2016 CRISTIANO RONALDO known, but they are worth repeating.

Top scorer in the Champions League four years in a row; the first player to score at four Euros; the tournament’s alltime joint-top scorer with Michel Platini.

In his first season at Real Madrid he hit 33 goals. Since then, he has gone over 50 goals every season for six seasons.

In seven years at the Bernabeu he has become the club’s all-time top scorer.

At Real Madrid, that is, not some tin-pot team. It’s not like the men he has left behind were nobodies: Raul, Di Stefano, Butragueno, Santillana, Hugo Sanchez...

Real Madrid’s president Florentino Perez calls him the “worthy successor of Alfredo Di Stefano and Puskas.”

The curious, contradictory thing is that 2016 may well have been Ronaldo’s most difficult year. Possibly even his worst – although there’s something in the word “worst” that sticks in the throat when applied to Ronaldo, and when applied to a season like the one he’s just had.

His “worst” blows pretty much everyone else’s best to bits. As Alvaro Morata put it: “We think he is from a different planet, but he is human.”

For so long, he hasn’t looked like it.

But there was something a little odd about his year. His most difficult year

Yet, they would never have got there without him, neither club nor country.

A hat-trick in the quarter-finals of the Champions League saw Real overturn a first-leg deficit to knock out Wolfsburg.

He netted twice v Roma the round before.

In France in the summer, he got three goals and three assists. There was that lovely flick against Hungary, and he it was who rose to head in against Wales.

Besides, the two successes could be seen as reward for everything Ronaldo has done not just in 2016 but before.

Relentlessly, consistently, endlessly. If 35 league goals, 16 Champions League goals, is seen as a bad season, that can only be because of how ridiculously good the others were. Almost every record Portugal and Madrid have is his now. It would have taken a cold heart not to feel for him when it seemed his moment had been taken away in Paris; the moment he had worked towards for so long.

Injuries have indeed become a factor recently. He is a player for whom physical condition has been vitally important; an athlete as well as a footballer.

At the end of last season Ronaldo admitted that maybe he needs to learn to “ration” himself. It came as a surprise: he now knows that determination to

The World Player award is recognition of the most successful year of Ronaldo’s career...a European champion for club and country individually – the year in which for the first time he has not dominated at Madrid – has been his best collectively.

Ultimately, last season was a wonderful season. 2016 could hardly have ended better: Ronaldo is a double European champion, for club and country. Images and moments that can never be erased.

But here comes the debate. In La Liga, Luis Suarez outscored Ronaldo – the first player other than Messi or Ronaldo to be Pichichi in seven years.

Barcelona won the double, not Madrid.

When Ronaldo struggled with injury at the end of the season, it was Gareth Bale who stepped up. And before that, some suggested that players like Luka Modric and Karim Benzema had produced better performances. Ronaldo was not bossing games, his evolution into something close to a number nine continuing.

There were lots of goals, of course, but less of the rest of his game. He was not flying past players any more; he went on fewer dribbles; fewer of his goals took the breath away. He “only” scored goals, some said. Yeah, only.

In the Champions League final against Atletico, he was a peripheral figure; in the Euro final against France, he had to watch from the touchline.

always be out there might be detrimental.

There are other clues, too. His tactical evolution – less ground covered, the area he occupies smaller but just as decisive – has been a reflection of reality but it is also a sign of his intelligence.

It may not always appear so, but he knows his limits and that may prolong his career, along with his ambition.

No, he was not perfect last year; no, his displays were not always as brilliant as in previous seasons, but it ended up being the best of all. He scored 51 goals and provided 15 assists on course to two European titles. He needed team-mates more than before, but that’s fine. “We did it together,” he had told them.

On the day his recent contract extension with Madrid was announced, one newspaper noted, not entirely unfairly, that it came at a “critical moment” from him. “Ronaldo is going through his worst era,” it said. If only because of his age, that was natural.

But “worst” is relative and look how it had ended; two European titles, the happiest moment of his life. And he doesn’t intend to stop yet. Real Madrid’s next game was Atletico Madrid away.

Ronaldo scored a hat-trick.

Sid Lowe

Top 10 Players of 2016 Player 1) Cristiano Ronaldo 2) Lionel Messi 3) Antoine Griezmann 4) Luis Suarez 5) Gareth Bale 6) Neymar 7) Riyad Mahrez 8) Robert Lewandowski 9) N’Golo Kante 10) Jamie Vardy

Club Real Madrid Barcelona Atletico Madrid Barcelona Real Madrid Barcelona Leicester City Bayern Munich Leicester City/Chelsea Leicester City

Country Points Portugal 842 Argentina 712 France 559 Uruguay 498 Wales 497 Brazil 405 Algeria 134 Poland 117 France 93 England 87

Euro 2016 Player of the Tournament…third-placed Antoine Griezmann

Other World Soccer Award winners 2016

Shock Premier League champs …Leicester City

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Leicester City Winner…Ranieri won more than double the votes of Portugal coach Fernando Santos

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Claudio Ranieri, Leicester City

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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Cristiano RONALDO 2017

Dominating the cover…just as he’s dominated on the pitch

Ronaldo leads Real clean sweep

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ristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid and Portugal is World Soccer’ss World Player of the Year for 2017. He led a clean sweep, with his club side being voted World Team of the Year and their coach Zinedine Zidane a clear choice as World Manager of the Year.

Ronaldo scored twice as Real Madrid won a record-extending 12th European Champions’ Cup with a 4-1 victory over Juventus in Cardiff.

In doing so they became the first club to retain the trophy since the Champions League group-stage format was introduced, and the first team to successfully defend the European Cup since Milan in 1990.

Ronaldo, who also scored the only goal as Real Madrid again won the Club World Cup, retained the award ahead of his great rival Lionel Messi and has now won the award for a record fifth time. His previous successes were in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016.

Ronaldo will turn 33 in February and it remains to be seen whether he can stay at the top of the world game. His recent assertion that he is the world’s best-ever player was met with emphatic

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Kiss…Club World Cup winner

2017 CRISTIANO RONALDO

Top 10 Players of 2017 Player 1) Cristiano Ronaldo 2) Lionel Messi 3) Neymar 4) Luka Modric 5) Gianluigi Buffon 6) Harry Kane 7) Robert Lewandowski 8) Kevin De Bruyne 9) Toni Kroos 10) Sergio Ramos

Club Real Madrid Barcelona Barcelona/PSG Real Madrid Juventus Tottenham Hotspur Bayern Munich Manchester City Real Madrid Real Madrid

Country Points Portugal 715 Argentina 663 Brazil 437 Croatia 237 Italy 205 England 181 Poland 162 Belgium 152 Germany 146 Spain 143

CR7…the brand

resistance from Diego Maradona.

“Tell him to stop f*****g around,” said the Argentinian, who reminded his interviewer of others with claims to the title. “I didn’t see much, but I loved what I saw from Di Stefano, Cruyff, Messi maybe...”

There will always be those who claim Cristiano is not even the best Ronaldo to

Cup could be his last chance to land the one prize that has eluded him during his career.

And his influence at Madrid could also be starting to wane, with the club’s pursuit of Kylian Mbappe last summer and the persistent rumours linking them with a move for Neymar suggesting that Real are now looking to pay top-dollar

Ronaldo has now won the award for a record fifth time. His previous successes were in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016. [But] there will always be those who claim Cristiano is not even the best Ronaldo to have played for Real Madrid have played for Real Madrid. But the clutch of individual awards that have been bestowed upon him ensure his place in the record books.

In 2017, Ronaldo played a key role in Madrid’s Champions League success and is now the club’s all-time record scorer. But at 33, this summer’s World

Clear…the top three finished well ahead of the field

Other World Soccer Award winners 2017 Clean sweep…Real Madrid defended their CL crown

for the next generation of superstars.

In many ways Ronaldo and Real Madrid have been a perfect partnership.

During Florentino Perez’s presidency, a commitment to galactico players has allowed a player who delights in individual glory to flourish.

Gavin Hamilton TEAM OF THE YEAR: Real Madrid Adulation...Zizou gets tossed in the air by his players

Winners’ medal…another Champions League title is bestowed upon Ronaldo

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Luka MODRIC

2018

Magic Modric…a national hero

Modric breaks Ronaldo and Messi duopoly

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he cover of World Soccer’s March 2017 issue featured Luka Modric with the line “The World’s Best Midfielder?”

The Croatia magician’s performances for European Champions Real Madrid had been crucial to his club’s success, but the media spotlight had all too often fallen upon his more headline-hungry team-mates.

The question mark is no longer needed. Not only has Modric been the world’s best midfielder over the past 12 months, his elevation to the status of best player on the planet is now complete.

The Ronaldo-Messi duopoly has finally been broken. Modric is World Soccer’s World Player of the Year for 2018, ending the long domination of the award by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Modric has been recognised for his role for both club and country in 2018: winning a fourth Champions League in five years with Real Madrid and then playing a leading role in Croatia’s unexpected passage to the summer’s World Cup final in Moscow.

The Croatia team of 1998, which lost to France in the World Cup semi-finals in Paris, arguably contained much more natural talent in the shape of Zvonimir Boban, Robert Prosinecki, Davor Suker,

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Inspiration…

Croatia’s leader

2018 LUKA MODRIC

Top 10 Players of 2018 Player 1) Luka Modric 2) Cristiano Ronaldo 3) Kylian Mbappe 4) Lionel Messi 5) Antoine Griezmann 6) Mohamed Salah 7) Eden Hazard 8) Kevin De Bruyne 9) Raphael Varane 10) Harry Kane

Club Real Madrid Real Madrid/Juventus Paris Saint-Germain Barcelona Atletico Madrid Liverpool Chelsea Manchester City Real Madrid Tottenham Hotspur

Country Points Croatia 706 Portugal 576 France 486 Argentina 452 France 391 Egypt 352 Belgium 326 Belgium 219 France 185 England 142

Acrobatic…Modric volleys the ball

Robert Jarni et al. But that memorable side has been surpassed by the class of 2018, orchestrated and directed

by Modric.

As Spain, Germany, Argentina and Brazil fell by the wayside in Russia, Modric was the man who lifted his team to a higher level. His talents, both creative and physical, allowed his team-mates to flourish. With long pinpoint passes as well as sharp, competitive challenges, his full range of qualities was on display.

It is rare for a player to star for both club and country in the same season but only a few weeks after he had

Fabio Cannavaro (2006) and Paolo Maldini (1994) are the only defenders to have been recognised, with Xavi (2010) and Lothar Matthaus (1990) the only previous central midfielders to win the award.

Modric is also the first Croatian winner and only the second from Eastern Europe, after Pavel Nedved in 2003. His victory – which was the tenth in a row for either a Real Madrid or Barcelona player – is yet another for the Spanish Liga.

Real Madrid players have now won the award eight times, a tally which is second to Barcelona’s ten, but more than Juventus (seven) and Milan (six).

Proud…Champions League king

Other World Soccer Award winners 2018 Glory…Les Bleus

The latest in a long line of east European countries who have been raised from the pack by an extraordinary individual…Modric is Croatia’s greatest-ever player and arguably the best to have emerged from the region of the former Yugoslavia celebrated winning the Champions League with Real Madrid in Kiev, Modric was named the best player of the World Cup. Croatia are the latest in a long line of east European countries who have been raised from the pack by an extraordinary individual: Bulgaria with Hristo Stoichkov, Gheorghe Hagi’s Romania and the Ukraine of Andriy Shevchenko.

Modric is Croatia’s greatest-ever player and arguably the best to have emerged from the region of the former Yugoslavia.

Forwards and attacking midfielders have dominated these awards since their inception in 1982, but Modric is breaking the mould.

In the voting for the World Manager of the Year award, France coach Didier Deschamps was the clear winner, ahead of last year’s number one, Zinedine Zidane, who guided Real Madrid to a third successive Champions League title.

Deschamps joined an elite group who have won the World Cup as both a player and a coach and is the sixth Frenchman to win World Soccer’s World Manager award.

France, following the pattern of World Cup winners usually being recognised in a World Cup year, won the World Team of the Year award, ahead of European champions Real Madrid and World Cup runners-up Croatia in third. Another thing Modric can be proud of.

John Holmesdale

TEAM OF THE YEAR: France Deschamps…world champion as player and coach

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Didier Deschamps, France

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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Lionel MESSI

2019

Trio…Lionel Messi, Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool claimed the prizes

Five alive for Messi

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ionel Messi is World Soccer’s Soccer’ World Player of the Year for 2019, edging out Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk in one of the closest contests of recent times. It is Messi’s fifth World Soccer award – after victories in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015 – equalling the achievement of his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo (winner in 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017).

Messi’s astonishing form for Spanish title-winners Barcelona gave him the edge over the Champions Leaguewinning Liverpool and Netherlands defender in a poll of journalists and pundits from around the world.

Messi won a tenth La Liga title with Barca in May, but they were surprisingly beaten by Valencia in the final of the Copa del Rey. And despite a wonderful performance from the Argentinian against Liverpool in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, they were beaten by an incredible comeback from Van Dijk and his team-mates in the return leg at Anfield.

In the summer’s Copa America, Messi’s Argentina lost to hosts Brazil in the semi-finals and suffered from some questionable refereeing in the third-place play-off versus Chile, when

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Messi was controversially sent off.

But it was in La Liga where he shone brightest. “All you can do is applaud,” said Diego Simeone after the Atletico Madrid coach had just seen his team succumb to another Lionel Messi wondergoal – and he could not stop himself from showing his appreciation for his fellow Argentinian from the touchline.

Collecting the ball 50 yards out on the right-hand flank in front of

the watching Simeone, and with a sea of Atletico shirts in front of him, Messi advanced towards goal, exchanged quick passes with Luis Suarez and side-footed a fierce low shot into the corner of the net. The impossibly difficult made to look effortlessly simple. It was typically Messi.

If any other player had broken the deadlock in a top-of-the-table clash with an 86th-minute winner they would be feted and their goal endlessly replayed.

But for Messi it was just another day at

Magical… another goalladen year

2019 LIONEL MESSI the office, his individual brilliance carrying Barcelona to a 1-0 victory and keeping them on top of La Liga as the campaign headed towards Christmas.

The consistency of his performances makes it easy to run out of superlatives to describe Messi, and the “Greatest of All Time” debate will rage on.

But, ultimately, stats and facts will trump emotions and opinions. And nobody in the modern game can match the individual records set by Messi since he made his Barca debut at the age of 17 in October 2004.

Last season he provided more assists and more goals than anyone else, was Europe’s top scorer with 36 goals in 34 league games to win another Golden Shoe, and he was also the Champions League’s top scorer.

More recently, his goal against Borussia Dortmund made the German side the 34th different team he has scored against in Europe, beating the record of Cristiano Ronaldo and Raul.

A week later he recorded a 35th Liga hat-trick as Barcelona thrashed Real Mallorca 5-2, breaking another record previously held by Ronaldo.

that I’ve coached Leo. “Just like how our elders talk about Di Stefano, we can say that we have been here at the same time as Messi.”

Messi turns 33 in June, so talk of retirement is no longer fanciful; it is the uncomfortable reality that has to be addressed. “It seems natural, something normal,” says Valverde.

“In the end, he’s 32 and he’s not going to retire tomorrow.

“It’s something he doesn’t have in his head but it’s there. When a player goes past 30 he always thinks about it.

“You have to look at it in a natural way. When the years go by there will come a time he will leave football, but it will not be now.”

Messi’s current Barcelona contract runs until the summer of 2021, but the reality is that the situation is far more fluid. There is believed to be a clause in the contract that allows him to leave at the end of each season. So he can name his price to stay, or go.

He has talked in the past about a move back to Rosario to end his career in his home town with Newell’s Old Boys. But life in Barcelona – where

“I’m lucky enough to say that I’ve coached Leo. Just like how our elders talk about Di Stefano, we can say that we have been here at the same time as Messi”

Top 10 Players of 2019 Player 1) Lionel Messi 2) Virgil van Dijk 3) Sadio Mane 4) Cristiano Ronaldo 5) Kylian Mbappe 6) Mohamed Salah 7) Alisson 8) Robert Lewandowski 9) Frenkie de Jong 10) Eden Hazard

Mobbed…Messi and his Barca team-mates

he, his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and their three sons Thiago, Mateo and Ciro – is settled and secure.

After titles at Under-20 and Under-23 level, success at senior international level remains the glaring omission from Messi’s stellar CV. The 2020 Copa America, to be joint-staged by his own country and Colombia, may be his best chance of success.

Messi scored the only goal of November’s friendly against Brazil in Saudi Arabia following his return to the international fold in the wake of his post-Copa America ban. His claim that the tournament was “fixed for Brazil” earned him a four-game suspension – but it was also an indication of his determination to assume leadership of the national side, where confidence is returning under Lionel Scaloni.

Messi will be 35 when the 2022 World Cup kicks off in Qatar. Will that be a suitable stage for him to bow out on a high?

In the meantime, we can only sit back and marvel at the contribution to the global game of Lionel Andres Messi, 2019 World Player of the Year.

Gavin Hamilton

Country Points Argentina 613 Netherlands 602 Senegal 366 Portugal 307 France 216 Egypt 200 Brazil 154 Poland 142 Netherlands 140 Belgium 126

Head-to-head…the top two Messi and Van Dijk battle in Europe

Other World Soccer Award winners 2019

Ernesto Valverde, Barcelona coach

He is the greatest goalscorer in La Liga history, with 431 in 462 games by the middle of December 2019, and he has also contributed the most assists, 173 and counting.

His stats for the 2019 calendar year are also extraordinary: games 54, goals 46, assists 17.

Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde acknowledges that he has been a witness to history. “You are aware of the privilege you have [by coaching Messi], but sometimes the day-to-day doesn’t allow you to enjoy it,” he says.

“Over time, you enjoy it more. I’m aware of it. I’m lucky enough to say

Club Barcelona Liverpool Liverpool Juventus Paris Saint-Germain Liverpool Liverpool Bayern Munich Ajax/Barcelona Chelsea/Real Madrid

Liverpool…the Champions League winners won the Team category comprehensively

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Liverpool Eyes on the prize…Klopp bossed the Manager vote

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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Robert LEWANDOWSKI 2020

Success…Lewy saw off De Bruyne and Ronaldo to win the award

Worthy recognition after Ballon d’Or snub

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ayern Munich, Robert Lewandowski and Hansi Flick made voting for this year’s awards incredibly easy by being quite clearly the best Team, Player and Manager in the world respectively. Their achievements made this year’s results the most comprehensive for a while.

The fact that so many of their other players also picked up votes demonstrates just how good they’ve been, and, in most cases, is testament to Flick’s coaching ability too: under his guidance, Alphonso Davies has gone from a promising young winger to one of the world’s best full-backs, while Joshua Kimmich has made the reverse transition, switching from marauding right-back to midfield dictator. Serge Gnabry’s rise from Premier League reject to world-class winger has been well-documented, but there is no doubt that Flick has had a massive influence on him too.

Even the team’s most experienced players have benefitted from the former Germany assistant’s tutelage: captain Manuel Neuer was a popular choice among voters after returning to top form following injury problems, while

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Thomas Muller has developed into the team’s creator-in-chief – registering a Bundesliga record 21 assists – just a year after being discarded from the German national team. Both Neuer and Muller made it into the top ten.

But it was goalscorer extraordinaire Lewandowski who stole the show.

“He is the most professional player I have ever met,” said Pep Guardiola of Lewandowski. High praise indeed from a man who has spent his entire coaching career working with only the elite.

Yet while the legendary Poland

striker has always been an exceptional talent, in 2020 he secured his status as undoubtedly one of the finest centreforwards of his generation, with the 32-year-old’s goalscoring exploits guiding Bayern Munich to a famous Champions League, Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal treble.

Since 2008, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the prestigious World Soccer Player award, with Xavi and Luka Modric bucking the trend in 2010 and 2018 respectively.

Yet only Messi – in 2012 and 2015

Celebrations… another goal for Lewy

2020 ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI – has managed to win it with a better goal return than Lewandowski.

The numbers have been frightening.

He ended the campaign as top scorer in the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League with a total of 55 goals. Over the entirety of the campaign, Lewandowski only failed to hit the back of the net in nine of his 47 appearances in all competitions.

In the Champions League he scored ten times in the group stage alone, and ended the campaign with 15 goals. Only Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more in a single season, yet his all-time record of 17 would almost certainly have been beaten if this year’s knockout stages had been over two legs instead of just one. Lewandowski’s tally of 34 Bundesliga goals was a personal best too, coming in just 31 games at an average of one every 81 minutes.

The records haven’t stopped tumbling in the new season either. In October, he scored his second Bundesliga hat-trick of the season to take him to ten goals in just his fifth match – nobody has ever reached the milestone quicker. Thomas Muller believes that his team-mate can

to understand why so many deem Lewandowski to have been robbed of the Ballon d’Or award after it was cancelled for the first time due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When asked by Sportowe Fakty which player he felt deserved to win the 2020 Ballon d’Or, Lewandowski simply replied: “Me. We won everything we could with Bayern Munich. In every competition – Bundesliga, German Cup and the Champions League – I was top scorer.

“I think a player who achieves this would win the Ballon d’Or.” It is hard to disagree.

Hansi Flick, acknowledges that he is lucky enough to have the best striker in the world at his disposal. “He is one of the most complete strikers around, if not the best No.9 in the world,” he says.

“He has everything you need up front.

He can head the ball, finish and hold it up. His work off the ball is important for the team.”

While Lewandowski’s goals take the headlines, his work off the ball is just as appreciated by his team-mates, and another reason why he is regarded as the planet’s best striker.

Since 2008, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the prestigious award...yet only Messi – in 2012 and 2015 – has managed to win it with a better goal return than Lewandowski match Gerd Muller’s record of 40 Bundesliga goals in one season. “When you see how consistently he scores, it’s within the realm of possibility,” said his Bayern compatriot.

The treble took the Poland captain to 248 Bundesliga goals. The all-time record of 365, also held by Gerd Muller, once seemed like a distant dream, but now is well within his sights. The Pole turned 32 in August, and insists that he wants to stay at Bayern until he’s 40. Who knows how many goals he will have scored by then?

Looking at the statistics, it is easy

Proud…Lewandowski finally added the Champions League to his trophy cabinet

While he is loved in Bavaria, in Poland he is a national hero. With the exception of 2018, he has been named Polish Footballer of the Year every year since 2011, an honour that he will undoubtedly claim in 2020 as well.

In the last year he’s strengthened his position as Poland’s all-time top goalscorer even further. A brace against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Nations League in October took him to 63 goals in 114 caps. That record is unlikely to ever be beaten, although only two of those goals have come at a major tournament, a record that he would like to improve next summer at the Euros.

And why shouldn’t it? In 2020 Lewandowski has banished any lingering question marks against his record, finally winning his first Champions League trophy and scoring vital goals along the way. Right now, he is simply untouchable as the most devastating attacker on the planet, and more determined than ever to be recognised as such. Even after having achieved so much, he has plenty of targets on the horizon, and he doesn’t look like missing.

Sam Straw

Top 10 Players of 2020 Player 1) Robert Lewandowski 2) Kevin De Bruyne 3) Lionel Messi 4) Sadio Mane 5) Cristiano Ronaldo 6) Virgil van Dijk 7=) Thomas Muller 7=) Neymar 7=) Manuel Neuer 10) Kylian Mbappe

Club Bayern Munich Manchester City Barcelona Liverpool Juventus Liverpool Bayern Munich Paris Saint-Germain Bayern Munich Paris Saint-Germain

Country Points Poland 187 Belgium 63 Argentina 56 Senegal 34 Portugal 33 Netherlands 27 Germany 21 Brazil 21 Germany 21 France 17

Treble…Lewandowski won three trophies with Bayern Munich

Other World Soccer Award winners 2020 Champions of Europe…six-time winners

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Bayern Munich MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Hansi Flick, Bayern Munich Inaugural winner…

Harder won the first-ever women’s Player prize

WOMEN’S AWARDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Pernille Harder, Chelsea & Denmark TEAM OF THE YEAR: Lyon COACH OF THE YEAR:Jean-Luc Vasseur, Lyon

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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Robert LEWANDOWSKI 2021

Cover star…back-to-back

Two in a row for Lewandowski

S

ince the World Soccer awards first began in 1982, only Michel Platini, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have ever been named World Player of the Year in back-to-back years.

Now, Robert Lewandowski’s name can be added to that illustrious list.

Continuing where he left off in 2020, the Bayern Munich and Poland striker was in scintillating goalscoring form once again as he surpassed the seemingly unbreakable Bundesliga record of the late, great Gerd Muller. With 41 league goals, he overtook the Bayern legend’s tally from the 1971-72 campaign, thereby securing his first-ever European Golden Shoe. For most of our panel, that was enough to win their vote.

Still, missing out on the Champions League, or international glory with Poland, meant that Lewandowski’s competition for this year’s award was much stiffer than last year.

Winning the Copa America with Argentina put Lionel Messi right back in contention after finishing a distant third in 2020; Jorginho becoming a European champion for club and country made the Italian a popular choice, while Mo Salah’s breathtaking start to the season put him right among the contenders too.

UEFA Player of the Year Jorginho can console himself by being one of

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the key men in this year’s World Soccer Men’s Team of the Year: Italy. Their boss, Roberto Mancini, was also a runaway leader in the Men’s Manager of the Year, with only Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel rivalling them as challengers.

It is rare for a team to win the award while also ending their year so disappointingly. Italy’s failure to qualify for next year’s World Cup automatically was made all the more surprising by their excellence in the summer.

In the women’s categories, there was a clean sweep for European champions

Barcelona, the coach that guided them to last season’s Champions League, Lluis Cortes, and their captain, Alexia Putellas.

But back to the men’s World Player award, and of all the elite players to have been overshadowed by the astonishing achievements of Messi and Ronaldo in the last decade, few have remained as consistently prolific as Lewandowski. He may have had to wait until beyond his 30th birthday, but the Poland marksman has now moved out of that shadow and established himself as the world’s best centre-forward.

Lewandowski… two-time winner

2021 ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI In 2020, he was rewarded for spearheading Bayern’s treble-winning outfit, recognised as the best player in the best team; the outstanding cog in an incredible machine. This year though, it’s been all about him. Other than their entirely predictable retention of the Bundesliga crown, the Bavarians failed to hit the heights of the previous season, and in doing so they proved just how much they rely on Lewandowski.

They missed him badly in the Champions League quarter-final defeat to PSG, when a rare knee injury ruled him out of both legs.

It is also hard to imagine that Bayern would have suffered their shock secondround exit from the 2020-21 German Cup to Holsten Kiel if their talismanic striker had started the match.

The sheer volume of goals that he scored was frightening. Gerd Muller’s record of 40 in one Bundesliga season had stood for almost 50 years before last season; not only did Lewandowski break the record, he did so having played five fewer games. Indeed, last season was the first time that the Pole had played fewer than 30 league games since arriving in Germany in 2010. That

campaign, Lewandowski had already scored 14 Bundesliga goals, taking his overall tally to 291. Muller is on 365, while the Germany legend also leads in the Bayern record books, with 563 goals to Lewandowski’s 319.

Lewandowski turned 33 in August and, usually, it would be fair to assume that time is running out for him to catch Muller. But his exploits over the last few years have forced us to reconsider what a player’s peak years should be.

“It’s how football is now,” said his old manager Jurgen Klopp recently. “33, 34 – that’s the best age of a footballer: you understand the game better, you can judge the pitch better, you can see situations long before they will happen.”

Ronaldo and Messi continuing to score goals well into their 30s could be explained as part of their usual convention-defying excellence, but the Bayern man’s form hints at a wider trend.

The likes of Neymar, Salah and Harry Kane, who are all approaching their 30th birthdays, will be taking note: their best years may yet be ahead of them.

“Age is only a number and, with my experience and preparation, I know I can play on at the top level for a few years

“Age is only a number...I know I can play on at the top level for a few years longer. Maybe, like wine, I can grow even better with age” didn’t stop him from producing his most prolific campaign, winning the first Golden Shoe of his career in the process.

There were plenty of other records that Lewandowski sent tumbling along the way, too. He scored in 13 consecutive home league games, a Bundesligarecord streak that included 24 goals; he broke a Bayern record by scoring in 19 consecutive games in all competitions, a run that ended in October; he won his fourth Bundesliga Golden Boot in a row, and sixth in total, moving within one of another of Muller’s all-time records; and he surpassed Klaus Fischer on the list of all-time league top scorers to move into second place – again, behind Muller.

After 12 games of the current

Golden Shoe winner…Lewandowski (Credit: Kicker)

longer,” said Lewandowski recently, after collecting the Golden Shoe trophy. “Maybe, like wine, I can grow even better with age.”

Bayern certainly hope so, as do Poland.

He scored three goals for his country at Euro 2020 – his best-ever return at a major tournament – but it wasn’t enough for them to advance from the group.

Even with his ability to defy the ageing process, Qatar 2022 may be his last opportunity to play at a World Cup. He has done everything within his power to get there: Poland lost two games in qualifying – 2-1 defeats to England and Hungary – the only two games in which the captain did not play. He had a hand in more than a third of their total goals, scoring eight and assisting another four.

They will need Lewandowski to deliver once again in the play-offs.

Getting to Qatar, and then reaching the knockout stages, will be among the top of his targets for 2022, as will reclaiming Bayern’s European crown. The evidence of this year shows that, as long as he’s playing, both teams have every chance of achieving their goals.

And if he does tick off all of those objectives? This time next year, we’ll probably be discussing the first player to win this award three times in a row.

Jamie Evans

Top 10 Players of 2021 Player 1) Robert Lewandowski 2) Lionel Messi 3) Jorginho 4) Mohamed Salah 5) Karim Benzema 6) N’Golo Kante 7) Kevin De Bruyne 8) Gianluigi Donnarumma 9=) Kylian Mbappe 9=) Erling Haaland

Club Bayern Munich Barcelona/PSG Chelsea Liverpool Real Madrid Chelsea Manchester City Milan/PSG Paris Saint-Germain Borussia Dortmund

Country Points Poland 223 Argentina 171 Italy 123 Egypt 122 France 59 France 54 Belgium 43 Italy 40 France 31 Norway 31

European champions…Donnarumma and Jorginho made the top ten

Other World Soccer Award winners 2021

Azzurri…Italy coach Mancini and captain Giorgio Chiellini

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Italy MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Roberto Mancini, Italy League of her own…Putellas also won the Women’s Ballon d’Or and UEFA Player of the Year prizes

WOMEN’S AWARDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Alexia Putellas, Barcelona & Spain TEAM OF THE YEAR: Barcelona COACH OF THE YEAR: Lluis Cortes, Barcelona

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

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