The Ballon D'Or award for the World footballer of the year- as voted by 96 journalists around the world and one alien - was presented today to AC Milan midfielder Kaka. The religious Brazilian earned 444 voting points beating out 49 other colleagues including the pride of Portugal and Manchester United Christian Ronaldo who won 277 points and Barcelona’s Argentinean striker Lionel Messi and his 255 points.

Are we done giggling about his name? 

Rounding out the top five were Didier Drogba and Andrea Pirlo. The Ivory Coast national and Chelsea player Drogba earned 108 points while Kaka’s teammate and Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo managed to bag 41 points.

The bottom five were: Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid, Netherlands with 39 points); Zlatan Ibrahimovich (Internazionale Milano, Sweden with 31 points); Francesc Fabregas (Arsenal, Spain with 27 points. Also affectionately known as ‘Cesc’); Robinho (Real Madrid, Brazil with 24 points) and Francesco Totti (AS Roma, Italy with 21 points.)

Let the debate begin!

Anyone who watches Serie A and AC Milan knows that Kaka is money in the bank. That he won should not freak anyone out.

Regardless of what one may think of the top 10, this is a fine group of players and I’m not about to besmirch the result. However, it was interesting to see Pirlo make the top five. Should soccer fans be surprised?

No.

When we think of midfielders today it’s usually the powerful and flashy midfielders who tend to get all the attention.

Pirlo is a different cat altogether. He is indeed an elegant and exquisite talent. There's a certain understated and subtle brilliance to his game.

Not typically overly physical, Pirlo's genius can literally be overlooked by the casual fan. He is technically excellent and his vision on the field superb. He's what we call a classic holding midfielder that sets the pace of a game.

Pirlo does not seem to be doing much on the field but in reality he is at the center of everything. In many ways, he reminds fans of prototypical midfielders of high mastery like Michel Platini. I’m not suggesting Pirlo is at the level of the great midfielders (yet) but he is in the same mould. 

Milan is endowed with two of the most unheralded and brilliant midfielders in world soccer: Clarence Seedorf (who incidentally won nine points in the voting) and Andrea Pirlo. Add the devastating Kaka and it's not hard to see why in a one game playoff for all the marbles AC Milan is a powerhouse.

Domestically the story changes a little for Milan. Battling for a Scudetto, well, that's another story and not the point of the piece here.

That all being said, it was nice to see Pirlo nominated and received votes.

Notes: 35 players received at least one point. The English Premier League led with 11 clubs, followed by La Liga with ten clubs and Serie A with nine. Of the players in the top ten, Italian clubs led with four mentions, Spain and England with three each.

Of the same 35 players Italians led the list with seven, Brazilians with five, Argentina and Netherlands with three while France, England and Spain had two each. The list included four players from Africa.

Rest of the list:

Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla, Mali) - 19 points; Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil) - 18 points; Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, England) - 17 points ; Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal/Boca Juniors, Argentina) - 15 points; Daniel Alves (Sevilla, Brazil) - 14 points; Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan, Italy) - 12 points ; Franck Ribery (Marseille/Bayern Munich, France) - 10 points ; Paolo Maldini (AC Milan, Italy) - 8 points
Seven Points: Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, Italy) Petr Cech (Chelsea, Czech Republic), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan, Italy), Thierry Henry (Arsenal/Barcelona, France) and Clarence Seedorf (AC Milan, Netherlands)
Five points: Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy) and Michael Essien (Chelsea, Ghana)
Four points: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, England)
Three points: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid, Spain) and Rogerio Ceni (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Two points: Younis Mahmoud (Al-Gharafa, Iraq)
One point: Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham Hotspur, Bulgaria), Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona, Cameroon), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United, Wales), Guillermo Ochoa (Club America, Mexico), Carlos Tevez (West Ham United/Manchester United, Argentina) and Robin van Persie (Arsenal, Netherlands)
No votes: Eric Abidal (Lyon/Barcelona, France), David Beckham (Real Madrid/Los Angeles Galaxy, England), Deco (Barcelona, Portugal), Mahamadou Diarra (Real Madrid, Mali), Diego (Werder Bremen, Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Werder Bremen/Bayern Munich, Germany), Florent Malouda (Lyon/Chelsea, France), Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic, Japan), Ricardo Quaresma (Porto, Portugal), Raul (Real Madrid, Spain), Paul Scholes (Manchester United, England), Luca Toni (Fiorentina/Bayern Munich, Italy), Kolo Toure (Arsenal, Côte d'Ivoire), José Fernando Torres (Atletico Madrid/Liverpool, Spain) et David Villa (Valencia, Spain)