2005 FIFA World Player of the Year

The 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year prize was awarded to the Brazilian Ronaldinho for the second year in succession, ^[1] also claiming the highest point total ever, surpassing Rivaldo. He finished ahead of Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard and his Barcelona teammate Samuel Eto'o in the final round of voting. It was the award's 15th edition. The award ceremony took place on the evening of December 19, 2004, and was held at the Zurich Opera House in Zurich, Switzerland. ^[2] There were 156 coaches and 145 captains selected for the voting process, totaling 301 votes.

Birgit Prinz won the women's award for the third time in a row. For the women's side, there were 134 coaches and 127 captains selected for the voting process, totaling 261 votes. ^[1]

Results

Men ^{[3] [4] [1]}

Rank	Name	Team	Country	Points
1	Ronaldinho	Barcelona	Brazil	956
2	Frank Lampard	Chelsea	England	306
3	Samuel Eto'o	Barcelona	Cameroon	190
4	Thierry Henry	Arsenal	France	172
5	Adriano	Inter Milan	Brazil	170
6	Andriy Shevchenko	Milan	Ukraine	153
7	Steven Gerrard	Liverpool F.C.	England	131
8	Kaká	Milan	Brazil	101
9	Paolo Maldini	Milan	Italy	76
10	Didier Drogba	Chelsea	Ivory Coast	56
11	Michael Ballack	Bayern Munich	Germany	64
12	Ronaldo	Real Madrid	Brazil	63
13	Zinedine Zidane	Real Madrid	France	55
14	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Juventus	Sweden	36
15	Deco	Barcelona	Portugal	24
16	Juan Román Riquelme	Villarreal	Argentina	20
17	Robinho	Santos Real Madrid	Brazil	19
18	David Beckham	Real Madrid	England	17
18=	Wayne Rooney	Manchester United	England	17
20	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	Portugal	13
21	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Manchester United	Netherlands	11
21=	Michael Essien	Lyon Chelsea	Ghana	11
23	Raúl	Real Madrid	Spain	8
23=	Pavel Nedvěd	Juventus	Czech Republic	8
25	Arjen Robben	Chelsea	Netherlands	5
26	Cafu	Milan	Brazil	3
26=	Jay-Jay Okocha	Bolton Wanderers	Nigeria	3
26=	Roberto Carlos	Real Madrid	Brazil	3
26=	Alessandro Nesta	Milan	Italy	3
30	Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus	Italy	1

Women ^[1]

Rank	Player	Club	Points
1	Birgit Prinz	FFC Frankfurt	513
2	Marta	Umeå IK	429
3	Shannon Boxx	Ajax Los Angeles	235
4	Hanna Ljungberg	Umeå IK	206
5	Renate Lingor	FFC Frankfurt	170
6	Maribel Domínguez	Atlanta Beat FC Barcelona	115
7	Solveig Gulbrandsen	Kolbotn	97
7	Sandra Minnert	SC Bad Neuenahr	97
9	Christie Welsh	Lyon New Jersey Wildcats	78
10	Kelly Smith	Arsenal L.F.C.	60
11	Malin Moström	Umeå IK	N/A
12	Laura Georges	Lyon	N/A
13	Perpetua Nkwocha	Sunnanå SK	N/A

References

1. "FIFA Awards, World Player of the Year Top 10". rsssf. Archived from the original on 12 January 2016.
2. "Ronaldinho named World Player of the Year again". China Daily . 20 December 2005. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
3. "Wayback Machine". www.fifa.com. Archived from the original on 2006-01-11. Retrieved 2025-12-19.
4. "Wayback Machine" (PDF). www.fifa.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-01-01. Retrieved 2025-12-19.