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ZURICH (Switzerland), Dec 19: Luis Figo of Real Madrid was crowned FIFA’s World Player of the Year on Monday when he narrowly out-scored Manchester United’s David Beckham in a poll of national team coaches.
Figo, runner-up last year behind Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, scored a total of 250 points to beat United midfielder Beckham, on 238, into second place.
But the England captain, who was runner-up in 1999, gathered more votes for first place than any of his rivals — 30 against Figo’s 27.
Figo won, however, because he had 35 coaches’ votes for second place compared to 23 for Beckham.
Another Real Madrid player, Raul, the Spanish international striker, was third.
Figo was presented with his award by the FIFA president Sepp Blatter and the former Liberian international striker George Weah, who won the award in 1995.
European Footballer of Year
PARIS: Liverpool and England striker Michael Owen was named European Footballer of the Year by the French magazine France Football on Monday.
Owen, who turned 22 last week, became the first English player to win the prestigious award since Kevin Keegan in 1979.
He is also the first Liverpool player to take the prize. Keegan played for the English club but won the award in both 1978 and 1979 when he played for Hamburg SV in Germany.
Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, an insipartion as Bayern won the European Cup in May, was third on 114 points.
Manchester United midfielder David Beckham came in fourth on 102 points ahead of Italy’s Francesco Totti and Portugal’s Luis Figo, who were fifth and sixth respectively.
—Reuters
