FIFPro

The Fédération International de Footballeurs Professionels, usually known by the abbreviation FIFPro, is a worldwide representative organisation for professional football (soccer) players. At the moment there are 40 national players associations who are member of FIFPro.

Brief history

On 15 December 1965 representatives of the French, Scottish, English, Italian and Dutch players' associations met in Paris, with the purpose of setting up an international federation for footballers.

The Board

Current: FIFPro Board

President: Gordon Taylor (PFA, England)

General-Secretary: Theo van Seggelen (VVCS, Netherlands)

Vice-presidents: Philippe Piat (UNFP, France), Leonardo Grosso (AIC, Italy), Gerardo G. Movilla (AFE, Spain), Jorge Dominguez (FAA, Argentina)

Secretary to the FIFPro board: Frederique Winia (Netherlands)

Awards

In 2005, FIFPro launched its inaugural "World XI Player Awards", "World Player of the Year" and "Young Player of the Year" awards.

World XI

The World XI are chosen by the footballers themselves from a list of candidates for each position. The list is generated by the awards committee itself.

Year	Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
2005	Petr Čech (Chelsea F.C)	Alessandro Nesta (A.C. Milan) Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus F.C.) John Terry (Chelsea F.C.) William Gallas (Chelsea F.C)	Frank Lampard (Chelsea F.C.) Claude Makelele (Chelsea F.C.) Ronaldinho (F.C. Barcelona) Kaka (A.C. Milan)	Thierry Henry (Arsenal F.C) Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea F.C.)

World Player of the Year

The player with the most votes in the World XI balloting is also named World Player of the Year.

Year	Player
2005	Ronaldinho (Barcelona)

World Midfielder of the Year

There is also an award for World Midfielder of the Year. The committee vote on who they think is the best Midfielder of the year, the player with most votes wins.