Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro will be named FIFA's World Player of the Year Monday night at a ceremony in Zurich, according to leaks reported in the Spanish media.
The award will cap a remarkable 2006 for the Real Madrid defender, who hardly put a foot wrong as he led Italy to World Cup glory in July and was crowned European Footballer of the Year last month.
Cannavaro also won the Serie A championship with former club Juventus this year, although the Turin outfit was later stripped of the title and relegated to the second division for its role in the Calciopoli referee-rigging scandal.
The leaks are being taken as true here, because similar reports appeared in the Spanish media before Cannavaro won the prestigious Ballon d'Or award.
Spanish radio network Cadena Ser said Cannavaro topped FIFA's poll of national-team coaches and captains with 498 points.
He reportedly came ahead of retired three-time winner Zinedine Zidane of France, who received 454 points, and Barcelona's Brazil star Ronaldinho, the winner of the past two editions, with 380.
"If this is confirmed, it will be incredible," the Neapolitan said Monday.
"This has already been a spectacular year for me. I won the World Cup, the Serie A title, I moved to Real Madrid and then there was the Ballon d'Or".
Only one Italian has previously won the World Player of the Year Award - Roberto Baggio in 1993.
Real Madrid and Spain captain Raul congratulated Cannavaro Monday.
"No one can question what a fine footballer Cannavaro is," said Raul, who voted for the Italian in the poll.
"He had a great World Cup and he has played his heart out for Juventus and Real Madrid.
Cannavaro is also among the three best players of the World Cup who FIFA will pay tribute to Monday at the Zurich Opera House, along with Zidane and AC Milan and Italy playmaker Andrea Pirlo.
Another member of the Azzurri's world-beating squad, Gianluigi Buffon of Juventus, will be handed the outstanding goalkeeper of the World Cup prize.
Cannavaro has been a regular feature in the Azzurri set-up since he made his debut in 1997.
With 105 international appearances, the 33-year-old is the most capped player in the current Italy team.
The Real Madrid man is not the tallest central defender around (1.75m), but makes up for his lack of height with speed, timing and a fine ability to read the game.
Cannavaro has played for Napoli, Parma, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid, which he joined in the summer.
As well as the 2005 and 2006 scudettos with Juventus - both of which the Turin club has been stripped of because of Calciopoli - Cannavaro won a UEFA Cup (1999) and two Italian Cups at Parma (1999 and 2002).
He won two European Championships with Italy's Under 21 team too, in 1994 and 1996.
The only fly in the ointment is that Cannavaro was unjustly sent off Sunday in Real Madrid's 0-1 win at Espanyol for handball - TV replays showed the ball hit his face, not his hand.
Real Madrid have said they plan to appeal.
On Monday FIFA announced that Italy came second in its overall country rankings for 2006, behind Brazil - the winner for the fifth year in a row.
Italy ended 2006 with 1,560 points compared to Brazil's 1,588 and third-placed Argentina's 1,551 points.
This year was last in which the ranking will be calculated with FIFA's old points system, which was guilty of creating a number of anomalies.
Before the World Cup, for example, the Azzurri and host nation Germany were behind international soccer minnows the United States in the ranking.
