AC Milan's inspirational Brazil midfielder Kaka' has crowned an extraordinary year by capturing the FIFA World Player of the Year award.
In the final tally of votes from coaches and captains of the 165 national squads in FIFA, the 25-year-old midfielder received 1,047 votes, more than double the 504 for runner-up Lionel Messi of Argentina, who plays for Barcelona, while Portugal and Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo placed third with 426 votes.
On receiving the award from FIFA President Sepp Blatter, the deeply religious AC Milan star said: ''This is a very special day for me. When I was a boy I used to dream about becoming a professional player and playing with Sao Paolo and maybe one match for Brazil. But the Bible says that life gives you more that you ask for, and that is what has happened to me''.
The FIFA World Player Award came just days after Kaka' inspired AC Milan to a triumphant 4-2 victory over Boca Juniors of Argentina to win the FIFA Club World Cup.
Last month Kaka' won the prestigious Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) for being European Footballer of the Year. The accolade is organised by France's leading soccer magazine France Football.
This came at the end of the year which saw AC Milan win the European Champions League in May, while Kaka' in October was voted the world's best player by a global jury of his peers, the International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPro).
Here again Kaka' beat the likes of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as AS Roma's Francesco Totti and Inter Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Born Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, Kaka' was traded by Sao Paulo to AC Milan in 2003 for $8.5 million, a see which club owner Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon and ex-premier, later defined as ''peanuts''.
