Lionel Messi and Barcelona were the clear winners of World Soccer’s 2009 Awards, triumphing in three out of four categories, including the World Player of the Year award, while in our poll for the Player of the Decade, Brazilian Ronaldino emerged triumphant.
Messi is the first Argentinian to win World Soccer’s World Player award since Diego Maradona in 1986. However, it was his performances for Barcelona, notably in the Champions League Final victory over Manchester United in Rome, which sealed his victory.
Messi was the clear winner, ahead of his team-mates Andres Iniesta and Xavi. By finishing one, two and three in the Player of the Year voting, Messi, Iniesta and Xavi emulated the 1988 feat of Milan trio Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard.
Barcelona dominate this year’s awards. They won a staggering 75 per cent of the vote in the Team of the Year category – the highest proportion of the vote for a winner in the 28-year history of the World Soccer awards.
After just one season in charge of Barcelona, Pep Guardiola was voted Manager of the Year, a clear winner ahead of Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath and Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson.
Only Sergio Aguero of Atletico Madrid, winner of the Young Player award, prevented a complete sweep by Barcelona. He saw off competition from Alexandre Pato and Stevan Jovetic.
Spanish football performed strongly, with the national side finishing second to Barcelona in the Team category and David Villa and Fernando Torres finishing sixth and eighth respectively in the Player of the Year voting.
Meanwhile, Ronaldinho, a former team-mate of Messi, was voted World Soccer’s Player of the Decade. Based on the votes cast by readers in the 10 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 10 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.
WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR % of votes
1 Lionel Messi (Barcelona & Argentina) 43.2
2 Andres Iniesta (Barcelona & Spain) 21.5
3 Xavi (Barcelona & Spain) 11.2
4 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/Real Madrid & Portugal) 6.4
5 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Internazionale/Barcelona & Sweden) 4.2
6 David Villa (Valencia & Spain) 2.5
7 Diego Forlan (Atletico Madrid & Uruguay) 2.1
8 Fernando Torres (Liverpool & Spain) 1.3
9 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United & England) 0.8
10 Didier Drogba (Chelsea & Ivory Coast) 0.5
Others 6.3
WORLD TEAM OF THE YEAR
1 Barcelona 75.9
2 Spain 8.3
3 Brazil 3.8
4 North Korea 2.7
5 Wolfsburg 1.5
6 Estudiantes 1.4
7 Manchester United 1.3
8 England 0.8
9 Real Madrid 0.6
10 Bosnia-Herzegovina 0.3
Others 3.4
WORLD MANAGER OF THE YEAR
1 Pep Guardiola (Barcelona) 62.1
2 Felix Magath (Wolfsburg/Schalke) 9.7
3 Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) 5.3
4 Laurent Blanc (Bordeaux) 4.8
5 Fabio Capello (England) 3.9
6 Marcelo Bielsa (Chile) 3.4
7 Carlos Dunga (Brazil) 2.9
8 Roy Hodgson (Fulham) 1.3
9 Alex Sabella (Estudiantes) 1.1
10 Jose Mourinho (Internazionale) 0.8
Others 4.7
YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR
1 Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid & Argentina) 45.1
2 Alexandre Pato (Milan & Brazil) 25.2
3 Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina & Montengro) 9.8
4 Karim Benzema (Lyon/Real Madrid & France) 4.6
5 Bojan Krkic (Barcelona & Spain) 3.6
6 Mesut Ozil (Werder Bremen & Germany) 2.5
7 Theo Walcott (Arsenal & England) 2.3
8 Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow & Russia) 1.2
9 Sergio Busquets (Barcelona & Spain) 1.1
10 Dominic Adiyiah (Fredrikstad & Ghana) 0.6
Others 4.0
WORLD PLAYER OF THE DECADE points
1 Ronaldinho 781
2 Lionel Messi 759
3 Cristiano Ronaldo 708
4 Thierry Henry 619
5 Kaka 567
6 Fabio Cannavaro 401
7 Pavel Nedved 394
8 Michael Owen 330
9 Luis Figo 290
10 Zinedine Zidane 270
11 Raul 261
12 Ronaldo 260
13 Andriy Shevchenko 230
14 Andres Iniesta 215
15 Michael Ballack 180
16 Xavi 163
17 Rivaldo 150
18 Fernando Torres 149
19= Samuel Eto’o 146
19= Frank Lampard 146
21 Steven Gerrard 134
22 Deco 130
23 Francesco Totti 107
24 Ruud Van Nistrelrooy 99
25 Oliver Kahn 90
26 Paolo Maldini 82
27 Didier Drogba 79
28 Juan Roman Riquelme 77
29 Adriano 73
30 Iker Casillas 59
31 Andrei Arshavin 54
32 Zlatan Ibrahimovic 53
33 Gianluigi Buffon 49
34 David Villa 46
35 Roy Makaay 40
36 David Beckham 37
37 Wayne Rooney 36
38 Diego Forlan 21
39= Gabriel Batistuta 20
39= Henrik Larsson 20
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