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33-year-old defender of Madrid's "Real" and the Italian national team was chosen as the best football player playing in Europe in 2006. The winner receives the Golden Ball in the annual elections organized by the French magazine "France Football" among journalists from all European countries.
F. Cannavaro collected 173 points, firmly surpassing his compatriot, Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (124), and Arsenal forward Frenchman Thierry Henry (121). Fourth was last year's winner, Barcelona's Brazilian Ronaldinho (73), and fifth was the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane (71) who ended his career after the World Cup.
"This is a doubly important victory, because only the best players receive this prize, and even fewer are defenders," said Fabio Cannavaro.
Defender F. Cannavaro, who has represented the Italian national team 105 times, became an Italian champion in the last two years with Juventus. However, due to a corruption scandal, the Turin club was relegated to a lower division, and F. Cannavaro moved to Madrid's "Real" and in the summer became a world champion with the Italian national team.
"We defended excellently in the World Cup. The most pleasant were the semifinals against Germany. I want to thank Real President Ramon Calderon and my teammates from Juventus and the national team who contributed greatly to my winning this award," said the best European footballer of 2006.
Fabio Cannavaro became the fifth Italian footballer to win the Golden Ball. Earlier, the best in Europe were Omar Sivori (1961), Gianni Rivera (1969), Paolo Rossi (1982), and Roberto Baggio (1993).
2006 Best European Footballer voting (Place, player, team, points) 1. Fabio Cannavaro (Madrid's "Real") - 173 points 2. Gianluigi Buffon (Turin's "Juventus") - 124 3. Thierry Henry (London's "Arsenal") - 121 4. Ronaldinho ("Barcelona") - 73 5. Zinedine Zidane (Madrid's "Real"/retired) - 71 6. Samuel Eto'o ("Barcelona") - 67 7. Miroslav Klose (Bremen's "Werder") - 29 8. Didier Drogba (London's "Chelsea") - 25 9. Andrea Pirlo ("Milan") - 17 10. Jens Lehmann (London's "Arsenal") - 13 11-12. Deco ("Barcelona"), Kaka ("Milan") - both 11 13. Franck Ribery ("Marseille") - 9 14-16. Cristiano Ronaldo ("Man Utd"), Gennaro Gattuso ("Milan"), Patrick Vieira (Turin's "Juventus"/Milan's "Inter") - all 5 17-19. Frank Lampard (London's "Chelsea"), Lukas Podolski ("Cologne"/Munich's "Bayern"), Carles Puyol ("Barcelona") - all 3 20-24. Juninho Pernambucano ("Lyon"), Lionel Messi ("Barcelona"), John Terry (London's "Chelsea"), Luca Toni ("Fiorentina"), Gianluca Zambrotta (Turin's "Juventus"/"Barcelona") - all 2 25-26. Philipp Lahm (Munich's "Bayern"), David Villa ("Valencia") - both 1.
