Brazilian midfielder Kaka is the 2007 FIFA World Player of the Year. He was crowned FIFA’s top player at the Zurich opera house just a day after he led his European club AC Milan to a 4-2 victory over Boca Juniors in the Club World Cup final. In a vote casted by the national football team captains and managers, Kaka attained 1,047 points leaving far behind fellow contendors Lionel Messi of Argentina with 504 points and Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo on 426 votes. The same award title on the women’s category was conferred upon Marta of Brazil (988 points), who surpassed Germany’s Birgit Prinz (507 points) and fellow Brazilian Cristiane (150 points). In the same ceremony, Pele was awarded the President’s Award. FC Barcelona won the Fair Play prize for advertising U.N. children’s fund UNICEF on their jerseys.
This title was the third award for Kaka in 2007, who had already won the Golden Ball of European football and was crowned the World Soccer magazine’s player of the year award. He became the 5th Brazilian player to win this award. Earlier, Ronaldo had won the same award 3 times, Ronaldinho won it twice and Romario and Rivaldo had won this trophy once each.
In the Champions League final of the last season, Kaka had led his club to a 2-1 win against Liverpool. On Sunday’s Club World Cup final, he set up 2 goals for fellow team mate Filippo Inzaghi and also scored a goal himself. The win over Argentine club Boca gave the European club AC Milan its fourth club world title, thereby creating a record.
Prior to the award ceremony, Kaka had humbly owed his success to his club AC Milan. After winning the trophy, elated Kaka said,
Tonight is a really special night for me... When I was young, I dreamed of becoming a professional player for Sao Paolo and playing one game for the national team.
There was some speculation initially that 22 year old Christiano Ronaldo of Manchester United might be the winner this year, which would have made him the first FIFA World Player of the Year from any English club. He was tied at the top goal scorer (9 goals) position along with Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor and Everton’s Ayegbeni Yakubu, at the Premier League last season and had led his club win its Premier League title after four long years.
Image Credit: Xinhuanet
Via: CNN
