Zidane Ronaldo

FIFA Men's World Player of the Year award winners - Zinedine Zidane to Cristiano Ronaldo

Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski won The Best FIFA Men's Award for the second consecutive time in 2021 beating Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah in the race.

The FIFA Player of the Year Award, which was instituted in 1991 was merged with the Ballon d'Or in 2009 and went by the name FIFA Ballon d'Or until 2016. FIFA and France Football then decided to break off the partnership and give out separate awards. The first Best FIFA award was presented in January 2017 which was won by Cristiano Ronaldo. The first-ever FIFA Player of the Year Award was bagged by World Cup-winning former Germany captain Lothar Matthaus.

Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo have each won the award thrice in their career. Lionel Messi, on the other hand, have won it twice.

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Robert Lewandowski FIFA The Best AwardsGetty

Here, we take a look at all The FIFA Player of the Year Award winners over the years.

Year

Player

Team

1991

Lothar Matthaus

Inter Milan

1992

Marco van Basten

AC Milan

1993

Roberto Baggio

Juventus

1994

Romario

FC Barcelona

1995

George Weah

AC Milan

1996

Ronaldo

FC Barcelona

1997

Ronaldo

Inter Milan

1998

Zinedine Zidane

Juventus

1999

Rivaldo

FC Barcelona

2000

Zinedine Zidane

Juventus

2001

Luis Figo

Real Madrid

2002

Ronaldo

Real Madrid

2003

Zinedine Zidane

Real Madrid

2004

Ronaldinho

FC Barcelona

2005

Ronaldinho

FC Barcelona

2006

Fabio Cannavaro

Real Madrid

2007

Kaka

AC Milan

2008

Cristiano Ronaldo

Manchester United

2009

Lionel Messi

FC Barcelona

2016

Cristiano Ronaldo

Real Madrid

2017

Cristiano Ronaldo

Real Madrid

2018

Luka Modric

Real Madrid

2019

Lionel Messi

FC Barcelona

2020

Robert Lewandowski

Bayern Munich

2021

Robert Lewandowski

Bayern Munich

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