With 28.5 per cent of the votes, Sawa called an end to Brazilian Marta's five year reign of the title.

In the men's category Argentina and Barcelona wizard Lionel Messi (pictured right) as expected was crowned World Player of the Year, beating off competition from club mate Xavi and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo – the other two finalists.

By retaining the title, the little magician has become only the third player to win the prize three times alongside Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo, as well as the first to triumph in three successive years.

Messi, widely regarded as one of the three best players ever to play the game along with Pelé and Diego Maradona, won 47.88 per cent of the votes, more than double that of Ronaldo (21.6 per cent) and way ahead of Xavi (9.23 per cent).

Barcelona's Pep Guardiola was voted 2011 Coach of the Year following last season's showpiece European Champions League victory over Manchester United at Wembley.

He clinched 41.92 per cent of the votes with United's Alex Ferguson polling 15.61 per cent and Jose Mourinho, Portuguese coach of Real Madrid, 12.43 per cent.


Women's Coach of the Year went to Japan's Norio Sasaki (pictured) for the part he played in steering his team to success at the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany.

All the awards were decided after a poll in which the captains and head coaches of the men's (for the two men's football awards) and women's (for the two women's football awards) national teams, as well as international media representatives selected by French football magazine France Football, voted in each of the four categories.

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