2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or

The 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala was the second year for FIFA's awards for the top football players and coaches of the year. The awards were given out in Zürich on 9 January 2012, with Lionel Messi claiming the title of world player of the year for the third time in a row.^[1][2]

2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or
2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or Winner, Lionel Messi
Date	9 January 2012 (2012-01-09)
Location	Zürich, Switzerland
Country	Switzerland
Presented by	FIFA
Highlights
Won by	Lionel Messi (3rd Ballon d'Or)
Website	www.francefootball.fr
← 2010 · FIFA Ballon d'Or · 2012 →

The gala ceremony was hosted by former Ballon d'Or winner Ruud Gullit and broadcast journalist Kay Murray of Real Madrid TV and Fox Soccer Channel, with singer-songwriter James Blunt and his band providing musical entertainment.^{[citation needed]}

Winners and nominees

FIFA Ballon d'Or

The top three nominees for the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or were:

Lionel Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo

Xavi

Rank	Player[2]	National team	Club(s)	Percent
1st	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona	47.88%
2nd	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Real Madrid	21.60%
3rd	Xavi	Spain	Barcelona	9.23%

The following twenty players were also in contention for the award:

Rank	Player[3]	National team	Club(s)	Percent
4th	Andrés Iniesta	Spain	Barcelona	6.01%
5th	Wayne Rooney	England	Manchester United	2.31%
6th	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	Ajax Liverpool	1.48%
7th	Diego Forlán	Uruguay	Atlético Madrid Internazionale	1.43%
8th	Samuel Eto'o	Cameroon	Internazionale Anzhi Makhachkala	1.34%
9th	Iker Casillas	Spain	Real Madrid	1.29%
10th	Neymar	Brazil	Santos	1.12%
11th	Mesut Özil	Germany	Real Madrid	0.76%
12th	Wesley Sneijder	Netherlands	Internazionale	0.72%
13th	Thomas Müller	Germany	Bayern Munich	0.64%
14th	David Villa	Spain	Barcelona	0.53%
15th	Bastian Schweinsteiger	Germany	Bayern Munich	0.50%
16th	Xabi Alonso	Spain	Real Madrid	0.48%
17th	Sergio Agüero	Argentina	Atlético Madrid Manchester City	0.48%
18th	Eric Abidal	France	Barcelona	0.36%
19th	Dani Alves	Brazil	Barcelona	0.34%
20th	Karim Benzema	France	Real Madrid	0.34%
21st	Cesc Fàbregas	Spain	Arsenal Barcelona	0.29%
22nd	Nani	Portugal	Manchester United	0.26%
23rd	Gerard Piqué	Spain	Barcelona	0.22%

FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

The top three nominees for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year were:

Rank	Player[2]	National team	Club(s)	Percent
1st	Homare Sawa	Japan	INAC Kobe Leonessa	28.51%
2nd	Marta	Brazil	Western New York Flash	17.28%
3rd	Abby Wambach	United States	magicJack	13.26%

The following seven players also in contention for the award:

Rank	Player[3]	Nationality	Club(s)	Percent
4th	Aya Miyama	Japan	Okayama Yunogo Belle	12.18%
5th	Hope Solo	United States	magicJack	7.83%
6th	Lotta Schelin	Sweden	Lyon	4.85%
7th	Kerstin Garefrekes	Germany	1. FFC Frankfurt	4.73%
8th	Alex Morgan	United States	Western New York Flash	4.34%
9th	Louisa Nécib	France	Lyon	3.21%
10th	Sonia Bompastor	France	Lyon	2.99%

FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football

Rank	Coach[2]	Nationality	Team(s)	Percent
1st	Pep Guardiola	Spain	Barcelona	41.90%
2nd	Sir Alex Ferguson	Scotland	Manchester United	15.59%
3rd	José Mourinho	Portugal	Real Madrid	12.43%

Rank	Coach	Nationality	Team(s)	Votes
4th	Vicente del Bosque	Spain	Spain	9.12%
5th	Óscar Tabárez	Uruguay	Uruguay	7.47%
6th	Joachim Löw	Germany	Germany	4.40%
7th	André Villas-Boas	Portugal	Porto Chelsea	4.16%
8th	Arsène Wenger	France	Arsenal	1.91%
9th	Jürgen Klopp	Germany	Borussia Dortmund	1.54%
10th	Rudi Garcia	France	Lille	0.89%

FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football

Rank	Coach[2]	Nationality	Team(s)	Percent
1st	Norio Sasaki	Japan	Japan	45.57%
2nd	Pia Sundhage	Sweden	United States	15.83%
3rd	Bruno Bini	France	France	10.28%

FIFA/FIFPro World XI

Casillas

Ramos

Vidić

Dani Alves

Piqué

Alonso

Xavi

Iniesta

Rooney

Messi

Ronaldo

Position	Player[2]	National team	Club(s)
GK	Iker Casillas	Spain	Real Madrid
DF	Dani Alves	Brazil	Barcelona
DF	Gerard Piqué	Spain	Barcelona
DF	Sergio Ramos	Spain	Real Madrid
DF	Nemanja Vidić	Serbia	Manchester United
MF	Xabi Alonso	Spain	Real Madrid
MF	Andrés Iniesta	Spain	Barcelona
MF	Xavi	Spain	Barcelona
FW	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Real Madrid
FW	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona
FW	Wayne Rooney	England	Manchester United

FIFA Puskás Award

Rank	Player[2]	Nationality	Team	Percent
1st	Neymar	Brazil	Santos
2nd	Wayne Rooney	England	Manchester United
3rd	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona

FIFA Presidential Award

• Sir Alex Ferguson^[2]

FIFA Fair Play Award

• Japan Football Association^[2]

Controversy

The day after the awards ceremony, Spanish newspaper Marca reported that none of the four captains of the Spanish women's national team had voted for the Women's World Player of the Year award.^[4] According to the list of votes published by FIFA, captain Sandra Vilanova had awarded five points to Hope Solo, three to Louisa Nécib and one to Marta.^[5]