2003 FIFA World Player of the Year

The 2003 FIFA World Player of the Year award was won by Zinedine Zidane for a record-equalling third time. It was the award's 13th edition. The gala was hosted at the Messe in Basel, on December 15, 2003. 142 national team coaches, based on the current FIFA Men's World Ranking were chosen to vote for the men's edition and 100 for the women's. The ceremony's theme was the Match Against Poverty, which was played the previous day between Ronaldo Nazario and Zinedine Zidane (3-4) at the St. Jakob-Park in Basel in front of 30,000 spectators.

Birgit Prinz won the women's award for the first time.

Results

Men

^{[1] [2]}

Rank	Player	Club(s)	Country	Points
1	Zinedine Zidane	Real Madrid	France	264
2	Thierry Henry	Arsenal	France	186
3	Ronaldo	Real Madrid	Brazil	176
4	Pavel Nedvěd	Juventus	Czech Republic	158
5	Roberto Carlos	Real Madrid	Brazil	105
6	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Manchester United	Netherlands	86
7	David Beckham	Manchester United Real Madrid	England	74
8	Raúl	Real Madrid	Spain	39
9	Paolo Maldini	Milan	Italy	37
10	Andrei Shevchenko	Milan	Ukraine	26
11	Luís Figo	Real Madrid	Portugal	17
12	Michael Ballack	Bayern Munich	Germany	15
13	Oliver Kahn	Bayern Munich	Germany	13
14	Pablo Aimar	Valencia	Argentina	9
15	Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus	Italy	8
16=	Filippo Inzaghi	Milan	Italy	6
16=	Michael Owen	Liverpool	England	6
18=	Alessandro Nesta	Milan	Italy	5
18=	Fernando Morientes	Real Madrid Monaco	Spain	5
20=	Cafu	Milan	Brazil	3
20=	Dado Pršo	Monaco	Croatia	3
20=	Fabio Cannavaro	Internazionale	Italy	3
20=	Henrik Larsson	Celtic	Sweden	3
20=	Paul Freier	VfL Bochum	Germany	3
20=	Rivaldo	Milan	Brazil	3
20=	Robert Pires	Arsenal	France	3
20=	Ronaldinho	Paris Saint-Germain Barcelona	Brazil	3
28=	Paul Scholes	Manchester United	England	2
28=	Samuel Eto'o	Mallorca	Cameroon	2

Women

^[3]

Rank	Player	Club(s)	Points
1	Birgit Prinz	Carolina Courage FFC Frankfurt	268
2	Mia Hamm	Washington Freedom	133
3	Hanna Ljungberg	Umeå IK	84
4	Victoria Svensson	Djurgårdens IF	82
5	Maren Meinert	Boston Breakers	69
6	Bettina Wiegmann	FFC Brauweiler	49
7	Malin Moström	Umeå IK	23
8=	Katia	Levante	14
8=	Renate Lingor	FFC Frankfurt	14
10=	Marta	Umeå IK	13
10=	Silke Rottenberg	FFC Brauweiler FCR Duisburg	13
12	Marinette Pichon	Philadelphia Charge Saint-Memmie Olympique	11
13	Charmaine Hooper	Atlanta Beat	10

References

1. "Wayback Machine" (PDF). images.fifa.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-12-29. Retrieved 2025-12-19.
2. "FIFA Awards – World Player of the Year - Top 10". RSSSF . Archived from the original on 12 January 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
3. "FIFA Awards – Women Player of the Year - Top 12". RSSSF . Archived from the original on 12 January 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.