Cannavaro to win FIFA award: report

Italy's World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro is set to be named the FIFA World Player of the Year, a Spanish radio station reported.

Spanish radio station Cadena SER even went so far as to publish details of the poll, ahead of the award ceremony in the Swiss city of Zurich on Monday, with the Real Madrid defender getting 498 votes.

Cannavaro claimed on Sunday that he was still in the dark about the destination of the award.

"I don't know anything about the FIFA Player of the Year. On Monday, I'll be going to the gala but I don't know if I'll be winning. I knew about the Ballon d'Or (the European Footballer of the Year which is awarded by France Football magazine) a few days before. But this time, no," said Cannavaro.

"If it's confirmed it will be incredible. A spectacular year: winning the World Cup, the Italian league, being sold to Real Madrid," he added after Real's 1-0 win at Espanyol on Sunday.

Cadena SER did not reveal their source of the voting details although they have strong links with the Spanish giants and have been ahead of their opposition with big stories concerning Real.

Normally the FIFA World Player of the Year voting is only revealed to the media an hour or so before the televised announcement, and then only on a strictly embargoed basis.

According to the radio station, France's retired three-time winner Zinedine Zidane, who finished his career in controversy by getting sent off in the World Cup final, is second this time with 454 votes.

Zidane also spent the last five years of his club career at Real Madrid.

Brazil and Barcelona's 2004 and 2005 winner Ronaldinho is supposed to be third this time with 380 votes.

Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello said that he believed Cannavaro would be a worthy winner.

"It's not difficult to understand that he should receive this award because the World Cup is the World Cup and there he was the major player in the world," said Capello.

If Cannavaro was to win it will more than make up for him being sent off on Sunday for the first time since he accompanied Capello and joined Real Madrid from Juventus in the summer.

"It was an unfair sending off because the ball hit him in the face and didn't touch his hand, like the referee thought," added Capello.

"It's difficult to accept. I've got a red face and a red eye as well. The ball didn't touch my hand," commented Cannavaro about the circumstances of his second yellow card which saw him also get a red card after 53 minutes.

The Cadena SER report about the FIFA World Player of the Year refutes the widely-held opinion that Ronaldinho was about lift the award for the third successive year.

If Ronaldinho, the Ballon d'Or winner last year, was to win he would become the first player to win FIFA award three years in a row.

Zidane and Brazilian striker Ronaldo have also won the FIFA accolade three times but no one has won it three years in succession.

The award is decided by voting from the coaches and captains of FIFA's member nations.