Kaka Officially Wins Ballon d’ Or

[Toppa]

Kaka of AC Milan (pictured) has won the 2007 Ballon d'Or after picking up 444 points in the final stage of voting.

The Brazilian attacking midfielder has been rumoured for weeks to be a shoe-in for the prestigious World Player of the Year award, but only now is it official that he has done so.

The 25 year old racked up over 150 voting points more than his closest competitor, Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo, while Lionel Messi finished not too far behind in third place.

For this edition of the award, 96 journalists voted for their five top players in order of decreasing preference, with five points for their first pick, four for their second choice, and so on to one point.

Only 53 of the journalists were European, giving the France Football award a distinctly international flavour.

European clubs dominated the voting, but Kaka himself is the third Brazilian to win in the past six years, and AC Milan's first winner since Andriy Shevchenko won the award in 2004.

Last year's winner Fabio Cannavaro finished joint 20th with 5 points.

The results in full:
KAKA (AC Milan, Brazil) - 444 points

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal) - 277 points

Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Argentina) - 255 points

Didier Drogba (Chelsea, Côte d'Ivoire) - 108 points

Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan, Italy) - 41 points

Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid, Netherlands) - 39 points

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Internazionale, Sweden) - 31 points

Francesc 'Cesc' Fabregas (Arsenal, Spain) - 27 points

Robinho (Real Madrid, Brazil) - 24 points

Francesco Totti (AS Roma, Italy) - 21 points

Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla, Mali) - 19 points

Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil) - 18 points

Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, England) - 17 points

Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal/Boca Juniors, Argentina) - 15 points

Daniel Alves (Sevilla, Brazil) - 14 points

Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan, Italy) - 12 points

Franck Ribery (Marseille/Bayern Munich, France) - 10 points

Paolo Maldini (AC Milan, Italy) - 8 points

Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, Italy) Petr Cech (Chelsea, Czech Republic), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan, Italy), Thierry Henry (Arsenal/Barcelona, France) and Clarence Seedorf (AC Milan, Netherlands) - 7 points

Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy) and Michael Essien (Chelsea, Ghana) - 5 points

Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, England) - 4 points

Iker Casillas (Real Madrid, Spain) and Rogerio Ceni (Sao Paulo, Brazil) - 3 points

Younis Mahmoud (Al-Gharafa, Iraq) - 2 points

Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham Hotspur, Bulgaria), Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona, Cameroon), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United, Wales), Guillermo Ochoa (Club America, Mexico), Carlos Tevez (West Ham United/Manchester United, Argentina) and Robin van Persie (Arsenal, Netherlands) - 1 point

Eric Abidal (Lyon/Barcelona, France), David Beckham (Real Madrid/Los Angeles Galaxy, England), Deco (Barcelona, Portugal), Mahamadou Diarra (Real Madrid, Mali), Diego (Werder Bremen, Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Werder Bremen/Bayern Munich, Germany), Florent Malouda (Lyon/Chelsea, France), Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic, Japan), Ricardo Quaresma (Porto, Portugal), Raul (Real Madrid, Spain), Paul Scholes (Manchester United, England), Luca Toni (Fiorentina/Bayern Munich, Italy), Kolo Toure (Arsenal, Côte d'Ivoire), José Fernando Torres (Atletico Madrid/Liverpool, Spain) et David Villa (Valencia, Spain) - 0 points.

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=500130

[Flex]

Fergie: Ronaldo easily world's best.
(PA)

Sir Alex Ferguson has not written off the prospect of Cristiano Ronaldo returning to Manchester United one day. The Portuguese began a new phase in his career last night when he made his debut for Real Madrid in a scrappy 1-0 win over Shamrock Rovers.

Real paid a world record £80m to let Ronaldo fulfil his childhood dream and turn out for the Madrid giants. And while Ferguson does feel the 24-year-old will prosper at the Bernabeu, he cannot entirely discount the possibility of him eventually coming back to Old Trafford, where he spent six years developing into the sport's best player.

"He may come back, you never know," said Ferguson. "Sometimes it happens that way. He loved United. If you look back at the six years he had with us, he never missed training.

He is easily the best player in the world. He is better than Kaka and better than Messi. He is streets ahead of them all.

"That's one of the things he has above all other players - he was never injured, he always played. And his best is yet to come. He is only 24."

Many United fans have already claimed they are happy to see Ronaldo go given his increasingly individual approach, particularly as it allows Wayne Rooney to resume the central attacking berth he craves. However, Ferguson is not joining those now attempting to rewrite history.

Describing Ronaldo's exit as "a massive loss", the United manager paid a glowing tribute to the player he still regards as number one on the planet, even if the title which currently belongs to the former Red Devil is likely to be inherited by Lionel Messi this winter.

"Cristiano is a massive loss," said Ferguson. "I have nothing but praise for the boy. He is easily the best player in the world. He is better than Kaka and better than Messi. He is streets ahead of them all.

"His contribution as a goal threat is unbelievable. His stats are incredible. Strikes at goal, attempts on goal, raids into the penalty box, headers. It is all there. Absolutely astounding."

[jai john]

Right then ...all we need now are the equally unbiased comments of Guardiola and Anchellotti ....

[Cocorite]

I am pleasantly surprised at Fergie's sentiments here. I expected sour grapes. This is refreshingly classy of him.