
After
counting all the 142 votes cast by the national coaches of the
FIFA countries, Zidane has been crowned as
FIFA World
Player of the Year 2003. The French footballer achieves
has hit this award for a third time, following his accolades
in 1998 and 2000.
Thierry Henry did not beat his
country man and had to stand as second-best with 58 votes
behind the winner.
Ronaldo is the third one in the
triumvirate of winners. Real striker did not repeat his last
year's success at the
Gala held in Madrid. He got 176
votes.
The brilliance of the French midfielder has
been acknowledged on three occasions: Barcelona
1998,
Rome
2000 and Basle
2003. Nobody can deny the
quality and character in every one of his actions. Ronaldo is
no longer a lonely
three-time winner, now he will be
enjoying this honour with his Real Madrid mate. 31-year-old
Zidane has achieved all awards a player can possibly win, some
of them repeatedly. Soon there will be more awards announced
like the
Golden Ball and
Onze d'Or, both of
which enjoy lots of prestige too. Zidane is, no doubt,
candidate for them once again.

Real
Madrid has made a clean sweep of candidates at the Basle Gala.
Florentino Pérez was there as head of the white club to
see six of his players among the top eleven achievers.
Roberto Carlos stood fifth,
Beckham seventh,
Raúl was eighth and Luis
Figo was standing at
the eleventh position. They all attended the Gala held in
Basle, as they are playing the "Match Against Poverty" tonight
at Saint Jakob-Park.
RESULTS: 1.
Zinedine Zidane: 264 votes.
2.
Thierry Henry: 186 votes.
3.
Ronaldo: 176 votes.
4.
Pavel
Nedved: 158 votes.
5.
Roberto
Carlos: 105 votes.
6.
Ruud Van
Nistelrooy: 86 votes.
7.
David
Beckham: 70 votes.
8.
Raúl
González: 39 votes.
9.
Paolo Maldini: 37
votes.
10.
Andrei Shevchenko: 26 votes.
11.
Luis Figo: 17 votes.
ZINEDINE ZIDANE'S TRACK
RECORD: 1
World Cupl (1998)
1
Euro Cup (2000)
1
European Cup (2002)
2
Europe Super Cups (1996 y 2002)
2
Intercontinental Cups (1996 y 2002)
1
Spanish
Liga (2003)
2
Italian League (1997 y 98)
2
Spanish Super Cups (2001 y 03)
1
Italian Super
Cups (1997)
1
Golden Ball (1998)
3
FIFA
World Player (1998, 2000 y 03).
3
Onze d’Or
(1998, 2000 y 01)
Realmadrid.com users showed the way to the
national coaches. In the poll conducted by the web site, the
fans selected Zinedine Zidane by 54,9 % of the vote
(24,927) and Ronaldo got 45,1% (20,415). As many as
45.342 web page users participated in the election of
FIFA World Player of the Year 2003. Thanks a lot!
There were more awards given at the FIFA 2003 Gala.
Brazil got the Top Team title; German player Birgit
Prinz was selected Female Player of the Year, ahead of Mia
Hamm and Hanna Ljunberg; the Fair Play award went to
Glasgow Celtic supporters; Bahrein was the Best Mover
and the Presidential Award went to the Iraqi Football
Community.
Realmadrid.com
Photos:
Ángel Martínez