Kaka wins top award after rule changes as Ronaldo comes runner-up..

United's Cristiano Ronaldo came, not surprisingly, runner-up to AC Milan's Brazilian star Kaka who has been named World footballer of The Year after winning the most votes to secure France Football magazine's prestigous Ballon d'Or award.

Barcelona's Lionel Messi came third in the voting.

Not a lot of fans will be aware of the recent rule changes which coincided with this year's competition. The Ballon d'Or came to being in 1955, prior to 2007 the award was more popularly known as the European Footballer of The Year. The rules stated that nominees had to play for a club within UEFA's jurisdiction, and until 1995 all nominated players had to be European.

However, from 1995 until 2006 all players at European clubs were eligible. In 2007 France Football magazine announced that they had opened to the competition to players from across the globe making it a truly international award.

On winning the 2007 Ballon d'Or Kaka secured the most votes from the group of 96 journalists of which and for the first time, only 53 were Europeans. The judges had to choose five players from the list of 2007 nominees. Each of the five selected nominees is then awarded either one, two, three, four and five points.

Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten of Holland and Michel Platini of France are the only players who managed to win the award three times. With the recent rule changes the competition has surely become a lot harder to win.