In the early morning of December 19, Beijing time, the 2006 FIFA Awards Ceremony was held at the Zurich Opera House. In one of the most talked-about awards, Cannavaro was voted World Footballer of the Year in 2006 with 498 points, making Cannavaro the second Italian to be named World Footballer of the Year after Roberto Baggio in 1993, and the eighth after Basten, Baggio, Wech, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho to win the Ballon d'Or and World Footballer of the Year award in the same year. Zinedine Zidane, who has retired, is in second place with a narrow disadvantage of 454 points, and Ronaldinho, who has been in the limelight for two years, is third with 380 points. Brazilian star Marta was named Miss World Football 2006 with a score of 475 points.

As of this year, the FIFA Awards Ceremony has been held for the 16th time. As this year marks the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, the theme of the award ceremony was "When Football Meets Mozart", and classic excerpts from Mozart's operas were interspersed between the awards ceremony. The ceremony was co-hosted by Gullit, one of the Dutch Three Musketeers, and renowned TV presenter Amanda McLean Attalie, and was watched by hundreds of millions of viewers around the world via televised performance. Many superstars, including Ronaldo, Zidane, Crespo, Andrea Pirlo, Klose and Mateus, were all present at the event.

The ceremony began with an overture to the opera "The Mercy of Dido", which was followed by a speech by FIFA President Sepp Blatter. This was followed by a series of previously announced awards for the World Cup in Germany, with the Fair Play Award awarded to the Brazilian Football Federation and the Spanish Football Federation, Ronaldo and Teixeira representing Brazil, and Aragonés and Raul taking the stage to receive the awards on behalf of Spain. Gianluigi Buffon was named best goalkeeper and won the Yashin Award. Klose, Crespo and Ronaldo took home the Golden, Silver and Bronze Boots respectively, while Zinedine Zidane, Cannavaro and Andrea Pirlo also took the stage to receive the World Cup Golden, Silver and Bronze Balls.

The President's Special Award was presented to Facchetti, a former Italian football legend and former president of Inter Milan FC, who passed away this year, and the wife and children of the captain of the "Big Milan Era" and the great Italian left-back Facchetti took the stage to receive the award. The award was announced earlier this month with 17-year-old Dutch teenager Andre Schmidt, who helped the Netherlands win the 2006 Esports World Cup in Amsterdam, and received the trophy from his idol "Boar" Davies. The Fair Play of the Year award is given to hundreds of millions of football fans who have always been closely connected to football.

In the "Miss World Football" selection, last year's second-ranked Brazilian star Marta was honorably elected with 475 points. The 35-year-old American veteran Lily was second, the 31-year-old German veteran Ringor was third, Han Duan and Ma Xiaoxu were seventh and eighth, with scores of 116 and 99 respectively.

The finale was World Footballer of the Year award, presented by FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Beckenbauer, Mateus and Davies, and finally Italian international Cannavaro, who now plays for Real Madrid in Spain, was elected World Footballer of the Year with 44 points, taking the trophy from Davies. The European Footballer of the Year contest and the "World's Best Player" campaign organised by the British magazine World Football also won the event, making Cannavaro the first defender to score a hat-trick in one year.

Germany's Ballon d'Or winner Zinedine Zidane, who was voted World Footballer of the Year three times in 1998, 2000 and 2003, is second with 454 points, and this is the second time since 2002 that Zizou has finished second in the selection. In 2005, Ronaldinho finished third with 380 points, and in 2006 the Brazilian was only voted Player of the Year by the World Professional Footballers. The three world-class strikers Thierry Henry (317), Samuel Eto'o (300) and Didier Drogba (150) round out the fourth to sixth places.

Prior to the award ceremony, FIFA also announced the 2006 FIFA year-end rankings, which resulted in Brazil holding the top position for five consecutive years and winning the honor of Team of the Year; Italy, the new World Cup winner, won the Most Improved Award, and in the past year, the Azzurri have surged 819 points, including 822 points in the rankings before and after FIFA's changes to the ranking methodology, and the year-end ranking has also risen from 12th in 2005 to second place in the current standings.

2006 FIFA Annual Awards

World Footballer of the Year: Cannavaro (Italy)

Miss World Football: Marta (Brazil)

Team of the Year: Brazilian national team

Most Improved Award: Italian National Team

Fair Play Award: Fans

Chairman's Special Award: Facchetti (Italy)

Esports Footballer of the Year: Andre Schmitt (Netherlands)

Fair Play Award for the World Cup in Germany: Brazilian Football Federation and Spanish Football Federation

Germany's best goalkeeper at the World Cup: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)

Germany World Cup Golden Boot: Klose (Germany)

Germany World Cup Ballon d'Or: Zinedine Zidane (France)