Figo pips Beckham for World player award

Mighty Real Madrid have three of the top four players in the world, with Luis Figo number one in the eyes of the world's coaches…

Mighty Real Madrid have three of the top four players in the world, with Luis Figo number one in the eyes of the world's coaches.

The Portuguese winger was yesterday named FIFA's World Player of the Year at a lavish Zurich ceremony, with team-mates Raul taking the third-placed award and Zinedine Zidane finishing fourth.

Manchester United's David Beckham, the England captain, prevented a Real clean sweep of the top three as he pinched second in the poll of 132 national team coaches.

Beckham was given a top nomination by 30 national coaches, including Louis van Gaal (Holland), Peter Withe (Thailand), Berti Vogts (Kuwait) and Philippe Troussier (Japan).

READ MORE

Former Scotland coach Craig Brown voted for Raul, Beckham and Larsson, while Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthy went for Manuel Rui Costa, Veron and Emmanuel Olisadebe.

Ireland and Manchester United captain Roy Keane tied for 29th place with Liverpool's Steven Gerrard.

Meanwhile Michael Owen capped an amazing 12 months as he became the first British player since Kevin Keegan more than two decades ago to be crowned European player of the year.

Owen's triumph after winning the Treble with Liverpool, scoring a hat-trick in Munich and reaching the World Cup finals made up for David Beckham narrowly missing out on the World Player Award.