Ronaldinho's World football king again At the climax of a splendid evening on Monday December 19,2005 at the Zurich Opera House on the theme of "Football meets dance", the two stars of world football were crowned ahead of, respectively, Frank Lampard and Samuel Eto'o and Marta and Shannon Boxx. Read on to discover how this evening of football and dance unfolded. According to FIFA.com, nigeriasports.com was informed that, the ceremony was watched by more than 1,000 guests, where the master of ceremonies for the night was Ian Wright, the ex-Arsenal striker and a veteran of last year's awards. He was assisted this year by former Miss Switzerland, Lolita Morena. A first dance by the Zurich Ballet accompanied by the soloist Stanislav Jermakov got the show off to a flying start. The first prize awarded was for Fair Play, with the town of Iquitos being rewarded for the formidable welcome it offered visitors at the FIFA U-17 World Championship Peru 2005 last autumn. Ivan Dibos, Peru's Minister of Sport, accepted the award personally and, with no little emotion, declared: "all Peruvians can now carry this great success.The new stadium is a symbol for us and the award is important for the Peruvian people." After a presentation of the "Football For Hope" programme and the first pair of nominees for the main award, Shannon Boxx and Samuel Eto'o, came the prize-giving for the FIFA Interactive World Player Award 2005. Eighteen-year-old Chris Bullard received the trophy after winning the Grand Final of the competition just 24 hours previously. It was then time to introduce Marta and Frank Lampard, the next two nominees for the FIFA World Player Award, followed by a two-step from Ana Carolina Quaresma and Dirk Segers. The Presidential Award was then announced, with Joseph S. Blatter coming on stage to present the honour to newly retired referee Anders Frisk. The announcement of the final two nominees - Birgit Prinz and Ronaldinho- was followed by a review of 2005 which demonstrated just how packed with FIFA events this year has been: Netherlands 2005, Germany 2005, Peru 2005, Japan 2005, the FIFA Interactive World Cup, etc. Then, the big moment everyone had been awaiting was here at last! As tradition dictates, the women's award came first. And for the third consecutive year, the German Birgit Prinz won the trophy. The European and German champion, who has demonstrated remarkable consistency, spoke of her joy at being the first triple-winner of the much coveted title. 0
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