FC Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi won the inaugural FIFA Ballon d’Or award for the best player of 2010. Brazilian ace Marta won the the FIFA Women’s Player of the Year. Jose Mourinho, the former Inter Milan and Real Madrid manager, bagged the FIFA World Coach of the Year award and German women’s national football team coach Silvia Neid won the award in her category.
FIFA Ballon D'Or winners
The top honours were decided based on a pole conducted where the captains and head coaches of men’s and women’s national teams and media representatives chosen by French Football Federation voted. Messi secured 22.65 percent of the votes, Andrés Iniesta finished second with 17.36 percent and Xavi obtained 16.48 percent to finish third for the second straight year. The original shortlist featured 23 players.
Messi, Xavi and Iniesta are all products of Barcelona’s La Masia youth academy.
Messi was judged as the best by the FIFA voting body based on his stellar performances for the Catalan club. Messi scored 58 goals for Spanish club in the calendar year. However, Messi had a disappointing goalless World Cup campaign, which could have hampered his chances , 2010 being a world cup year. His astounding form for Barca earned him the trophy second year in a row, making him the second man to repeat the feat after the legendary Dutchman Marco van Basten who won the Ballon d’Or for two consecutive years, in 1988 and ’89.
The award was renamed this year as FIFA Ballon d’Or, after FIFA merged the FIFA World Player of the Year trophy with Ballon d’Or, which had been awarded to the top player in Europe by ‘France Football’ magazine since 1956.
Jose Mourinho pipped Pep Guardiola of Barcelona and World Cup-winning Spain coach Vicente del Bosque to win the FIFA Coach of the Year award. Mourinho’ victory was undisputed , given that he led his former club, Inter Milan, to the treble, winning the UEFA Champions league,the Italian Cup and the Italian Serie A, and the FIFA Club World Cup. Mourinho gathered 35.92 per cent of the vote, defeating del Bosque(33.08 per cent) and Guardiola(8.45 per cent).
Brazil forward Marta won the FIFA Women’s Player of the Year award for a fifth straight year, defeating Germany internationals Birgit Prinz and Kosovo-born Lira Bajramaj.
Turkey’s Hamit Altintop won The FIFA Puskás Award for the “most beautiful goal” of the year for his stunning goal in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match between Kazakhstan and Turkey played on September 3, 2010.
