12 December,2009 07:17 AM IST | | A Correpodent
AC Milan's Brazilian playmaker, 29, beat Lionel Messi in votes cast by readers of World Soccer magazine in the collated 10 annual votes between 2000 and 2009.
Barcelona ace Messi, 22, was the Player of the Yearu00a0 following on from his European Player of the Year award - the first winner from Argentina since Diego Maradona in 1986. Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, 24, finished third in the Decade award.