Cannavaro wins World Soccer player of year award

LONDON (AP) _ Italy's World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro has added the World Soccer magazine player of the year award to his European prize. <br/><br/>Three weeks after receiving the Golden

Friday, December 15th 2006, 10:19 am

By: News On 6

LONDON (AP) _ Italy's World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro has added the World Soccer magazine player of the year award to his European prize.

Three weeks after receiving the Golden Ball, polled by France Football magazine, the Real Madrid defender was a runaway winner Friday of the World Soccer poll of its readers.

Cannavaro received 40 percent of the votes to finish ahead of Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o and Arsenal's Thierry Henry with last year's winner Ronaldinho coming fourth.

Cannavaro is only the second defender to receive the award in its 25-year history _ the other being Paolo Maldini in 1994 _ and he won the vote despite his former club, Juventus, being relegated and fined for its involvement in a Serie A match fixing scandal

Cannavaro now has the chance to complete a hat-trick of major awards when FIFA announces its player of the year in Zurich on Monday.

Italy's World Cup winning coach, Marcello Lippi, won World Soccer's coach of the year award.

Barcelona, which won the Champions League and its second Spanish league title in a row, received the team award.