Fabio Cannavaro:European Footballer of the Year

Real Madrid defender Fabio Cannavaro won recognition for his stunning World Cup performance as Italy skipper by winning the prestigious European Footballer of the Year Award (Ballon d'Or) on Monday. The 33-year-old Neapolitan succeeds Barcelona star Ronaldinho, winner of last year's award, but who placed fourth this time largely as a result of his World Cup performance as Brazil crashed in the quarter-finals to France.

Cannavaro with 173 points took the honour ahead of Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (124) of Italy and Arsenal's French striker Thierry Henry (121).

France's Zinedine Zidane, who retired after reaching the World Cup finals, placed fifth with 71 points.

"I want to thank Real president Raman Calderon and my teammates from Juve and the national team who had an important part to play in my winning this award," said Cannavaro.

"It has a double importance because it's given to the greatest players and as a defender it's rare to have this honour.

"The World Cup in Germany was perfect for a defender. I remember in particular the semi-final against Germany."

Cannavaro said that his personal choice of winner would have been Buffon "because he's a friend and a phenomenon", followed by Henry, who was runner-up in 2003, and Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo.

"Gigi (Buffon) is in the goalkeepers category but also apart in that he's in a class of his own," said the Real Madrid defender.

"A player like Thierry Henry has incredible qualities. He's been in the running for so many years. This year people said 'that's it, this time he'll have it' but he didn't. I'm sorry but it's not my fault, I'm not the one who votes."

Cannavaro added that his performances with Juventus played a big part in his success.

"Many people analysed my season with Juve in 2005 for this vote. In that season I played 37 matches and scored four crucial goals."

As well as winning the World Cup, Cannavaro won the Serie A with Juventus in 2004/05 and 2005/06 before they were stripped of those titles and demoted to the second division after being found guilty of match fixing.

The 51st Ballon d'Or, organised by French football magazine, France Football, was decided after votes from European football's leading journalists.

Arsenal's Arsene Wenger has slammed the decision to snub Thierry Henry as European Footballer of the Year.Wenger believes Henry should have been player of the year and that far too much weight was placed on Germany '06 and not enough on the season as a whole.
"It shows that the people who vote look only at the World Cup, which when you speak about elite football, in my opinion, is the lowest level in football that you can see at the moment," Wenger said

"I think he deserves the award if we take into account the World Cup as a whole," Thuram told French television.

Lyon manager Gerrard Houllier has labelled the decision to hand Fabio Cannavaro the 2006 Ballon d'Or a "scandal". The 33-year-old Italian defender beat international team mate Gianluigi Buffon and France and Arsenal striker Thierry Henry into second and third.

"Fabio Cannavaro is a good player ... but he's not the Ballon d'Or. Thierry Henry was much more decisive throughout the season. I don't understand it,”French national coach Raymond Domenech answered when asked for his opinion on Canal Plus television