2006 Ballon d'Or

The 2006 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in Europe as judged by a panel of sports journalists from UEFA member countries, was awarded to the Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro on 27 November 2006.^[1] On 16 October 2006, was announced the shortlist of 50 male players compiled by a group of experts from France Football.^[2] There were 52 voters, from Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Wales. Each picked a first (5pts), second (4pts), third (3pts), fourth (2pts) and fifth choice (1pt).^[3]

Fabio Cannavaro is the last defender to have won the award.

2006 Ballon d'Or Rankings[]

Voted players[]

Rank	Player	Nationality	Club(s)	Total	Votes by place					Votes
Rank	Player	Nationality	Club(s)	Total	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Votes
1st	Fabio Cannavaro	Italy	Juventus	173	20	12	5	5	0	42
2nd	Gianluigi Buffon	Italy	Juventus	124	14	6	8	2	2	32
3rd	Thierry Henry	France	Arsenal	121	6	15	5	6	4	36

4th	Ronaldinho	Brazil	Barcelona	73	2	5	6	10	5	28
5th	Zinedine Zidane	France	Real Madrid	71	6	4	5	3	4	22
6th	Samuel Eto'o	Cameroon	Barcelona	67	2	3	9	6	6	26
7th	Miroslav Klose	Germany	Werder Bremen	29	-	1	4	4	5	14
8th	Didier Drogba	Côte d'Ivoire	Chelsea	25	-	1	3	5	2	11
9th	Andrea Pirlo	Italy	Milan	17	-	2	1	2	2	7
10th	Jens Lehmann	Germany	Arsenal	13	1	1	-	2	-	4

11th	Deco	Portugal	Barcelona	11	-	-	2	2	1	5
11th	Kaká	Brazil	Milan	11	-	-	1	2	4	7
13th	Franck Ribéry	France	Marseille	9	-	1	-	-	5	6
14th	Gennaro Gattuso	Italy	Milan	5	1	-	-	-	-	1
	Patrick Vieira	France	Juventus Internazionale	5	-	1	-	-	1	2
	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Manchester United	5	-	-	1	-	2	3
17th	Frank Lampard	England	Chelsea	3	-	-	1	-	-	1
	Lukas Podolski	Germany	1. FC Köln Bayern Munich	3	-	-	1	-	-	1
	Carles Puyol	Spain	Barcelona	3	-	-	-	-	3	3
20th	Juninho	Brazil	Lyon	2	-	-	-	1	-	1
	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona	2	-	-	-	1	-	1
	Luca Toni	Italy	Fiorentina	2	-	-	-	1	-	1
	John Terry	England	Chelsea	2	-	-	-	-	2	2
	Gianluca Zambrotta	Italy	Juventus Barcelona	2	-	-	-	-	2	2
25th	Philipp Lahm	Germany	Bayern Munich	1	-	-	-	-	1	1
25th	David Villa	Spain	Valencia	1	-	-	-	-	1	1

Non-voted players[]

The following 24 men were originally in contention for the 2006 Ballon d’Or, but did not receive any votes:

Player	Nationality	Club(s)
Michael Ballack	Germany	Bayern Munich Chelsea
Tim Cahill	Australia	Everton
Joe Cole	England	Chelsea
Grégory Coupet	France	Lyon
Cris	Brazil	Lyon
Mahamadou Diarra	Mali	Real Madrid
Michael Essien	Ghana	Chelsea
Cesc Fàbregas	Spain	Arsenal
William Gallas	France	Chelsea Arsenal
Steven Gerrard	England	Liverpool
Ludovic Giuly	France	Barcelona
Fabio Grosso	Italy	Palermo Internazionale
Claude Makélélé	France	Chelsea
Florent Malouda	France	Lyon
Édison Méndez	Ecuador	LDU Quito PSV Eindhoven
Juan Román Riquelme	Argentina	Villarreal
Arjen Robben	Netherlands	Chelsea
Wayne Rooney	England	Manchester United
Willy Sagnol	France	Bayern Munich
Bastian Schweinsteiger	Germany	Bayern Munich
Andriy Shevchenko	Ukraine	Milan Chelsea
Lilian Thuram	France	Juventus Barcelona
Tiago	Portugal	Lyon
Fernando Torres	Spain	Atlético Madrid

References[]

^ BBC Sport staff (27 November 2006). "Cannavaro wins Euro player award". BBC Sport.
^ Record staff (16 October 2006). "Ronaldo, Deco e Tiago na corrida pela «Bola de Ouro»" [Ronaldo, Deco and Tiago running for «Ballon D'or»]. Record (in Portuguese).
^ Pierrend, José (3 January 2007). "European Footballer of the Year ("Ballon d'Or") 2006". RSSSF.

External links[]

[bbc1-1] BBC Sport staff (27 November 2006). "Cannavaro wins Euro player award". BBC Sport.

[2] Record staff (16 October 2006). "Ronaldo, Deco e Tiago na corrida pela «Bola de Ouro»" [Ronaldo, Deco and Tiago running for «Ballon D'or»]. Record (in Portuguese).

[rsssf-3] Pierrend, José (3 January 2007). "European Footballer of the Year ("Ballon d'Or") 2006". RSSSF.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t Ballon d'Or
France Football magazine award
Ballon d'Or (1956–2009)	1956: Matthews 1957: Di Stéfano 1958: Kopa 1959: Di Stéfano 1960: Suárez 1961: Sívori 1962: Masopust 1963: Yashin 1964: Law 1965: Eusébio 1966: Charlton 1967: Albert 1968: Best 1969: Rivera 1970: Müller 1971: Cruyff 1972: Beckenbauer 1973: Cruyff 1974: Cruyff 1975: Blokhin 1976: Beckenbauer 1977: Simonsen 1978: Keegan 1979: Keegan 1980: Rummenigge 1981: Rummenigge 1982: Rossi 1983: Platini 1984: Platini 1985: Platini 1986: Belanov 1987: Gullit 1988: Van Basten 1989: Van Basten 1990: Matthäus 1991: Papin 1992: Van Basten 1993: Baggio 1994: Stoichkov 1995: Weah 1996: Sammer 1997: Ronaldo 1998: Zidane 1999: Rivaldo 2000: Figo 2001: Owen 2002: Ronaldo 2003: Nedvěd 2004: Shevchenko 2005: Ronaldinho 2006: Cannavaro 2007: Kaká 2008: C. Ronaldo 2009: Messi
FIFA Ballon d'Or (2010–2015)	2010: Messi 2011: Messi 2012: Messi 2013: C. Ronaldo 2014: C. Ronaldo 2015: Messi
Ballon d'Or (2016–present)	2016: C. Ronaldo 2017: C. Ronaldo 2018: Modrić 2019: Messi 2020: not awarded 2021: Messi
FIFA World Player of the Year (1991–2009) FIFA Ballon d'Or (2010–2015) The Best FIFA Men's Player (2016–present) Ballon d'Or Féminin (2018–present) Yashin Trophy (2019–present)