The 45th Ballon d'Or winner - Luis Figo

The forty-fifth Ballon d'Or winner - Luis Figo    

Only the second Portuguese to reach the award and third Real Madrid player

One of the most interesting years in the Golden Ball rankings is undoubtedly 2000. On December 19, the prize for the best player in Europe was awarded to the Portuguese Luis Figo, who plays for the two Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid in both halves of the year and is part of Portugal's selection during Euro 2000.

Figo collected 197 points from the votes of 51 journalists, representatives of the countries that are members of the European football headquarters - UEFA. In fact, 46 of them put the Portuguese winger in the top five. He collected 20 votes for first place, 21 for second, 4 for third and one for fifth. Only 16 points behind him is Zinedine Zidane, who is having another fantastic season and has even more journalists who voted for him to be the winner - 24. But with 6 second, 11 third and 2 fourth places, he remains behind Figo, although many fans to be of the opinion that it is Zizou who deserves another Ballon d'Or, mainly because of France's triumph at Euro 2000. Still, the Juventus midfielder remains second and 96 points ahead of the third - Andriy Shevchenko.

Rounding out the top five are Arsenal's Thierry Henry and Alessandro Nesta and eventual race winner Rivaldo, who are on equal points and share fifth place. For another year, there are no Bulgarians in the ranking, and there are quite a few footballers who are nominated, but remain without a point.

The year for Luis Figo is more than strange. He started it as a Barcelona player and finished second in La Liga, losing in the semi-finals of both the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. However, his performance is the best for the Catalans, whose attacking stars do not shine as much as the Portuguese. He got off to a fantastic start with 3 goals in his first two league games, then the blaugranas' slump took a toll on him until March when he regained his goalscoring form. However, this is far from the most impressive thing about his game. He delivers a lot of assists, shows fantastic technique and an inimitable style that makes all the Portuguese think that once again the "sailors" have a big football star. His matches against Chelsea in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, in which Barcelona triumphed after a 1-3 loss in London and an honorable goal from Figo and a 5-1 success after extra time at home, where Luis was also on target, suggest this.

In the summer comes the most memorable moment in Figo's career. He accepts a mind-boggling bid from Real Madrid, whose new president Florentino Perez has promised to bring in the best player from last campaign. Before he plays his first minutes for the "whites", however, it is time for a European championship. On it, Figo and company reached the semi-finals, where they were eliminated by France after Zinedine Zidane's golden goal. This is one of the reasons why many people believe that Zidane is the man who deserved the Ballon d'Or.

Making his La Liga debut but with Barca's arch-rivals Real Madrid, Figo brings a twist against Valencia. His strong performance continues, albeit now in the white shirt, and his style suits the European champions perfectly. After last season's disappointing fifth-place finish in the Championship, Real's start has been strong and Figo is one of the reasons for that. Particularly significant for his success in the ranking are the matches in December, in which the Portuguese scored three times. And in the Champions League, the winger has his memorable moments, which still tip the scales in his favor, rather than the best player at Euro 2000.

Compared to Figo, Zidane has not had such a successful performance with his club team. If the Portuguese is talking about inevitable growth and a classy performance with the teams of two different teams, then Zidane is in the known excellent form, but nothing more. There are also no record successes for the "Bianconeri" team. It is precisely for this reason that a European championship proved insufficient to convince journalists to choose Zizou as the winner of the prize for the second time. And Luis Figo took advantage of this fact, becoming the 45th winner of the Ballon d'Or in 2000.