Zurich - It was a dream come true Monday for Manchester United's Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo as he was named the FIFA World Footballer of the Year 
2008.

The 23-year-old, who last month won the European Footballer of the Year award, made history by becoming the first player from the Premier League to win the top individual award in world football.

Ronaldo, who last season came close to beating the Manchester United club record for the most number of goals in one season when he scored 42 times, beat Argentinian striker Lionel Messi in second place.

Ronaldo picked up 935 points in the vote conducted by national team coaches and captains, while the 21-year-old Barcelona striker received 678 points.

Another Premier League player in Liverpool's Spanish striker Fernando Torres, was third with 203 points.

The award caps a tremendously successful season for Ronaldo, who not only won the European Footballer of the Year, but also picked up winners' medals for the Premier League, the European Champions League and the Club World Cup.

In receiving the award, the player, who is often accused of being arrogant, thanked his team-mates, saying that he could not have achieved everything he has so far in his career without the quality of players around him.

"It is another overwhelming moment in my life and I am tremendously honoured to win this award. It is possibly the greatest day in my footballing life," he said.

Brazilian Marta made it a hat-trick of women's awards when she won her third Footballer of the Year title in a row, beating Germany's Birgit Prinz and Brazilian Cristiane with second and third places.

Marta, who earlier on Monday announced that she would be joining the Los Angeles Sol club in the American professional league, was the overwhelming winner, picking up 1,002 points to Prinz's 328 and Cristiane's 275.

FIFA also awarded a development award to the Palestinian Football Federation (PFF) for having maintained, under difficult circumstances, their football organization and their national team.

The world controlling body said in a statement that the PFF had made it possible to play their first-ever international at home.

"Together with the help of FIFA and some donators, they completed a major refurbishment of the Al-Husseini Stadium, in the city of Al- Ram near Ramallah, which has become the first stadium in the Palestinian territories to meet the requirements to stage an international game.

"As a result, on 26 October 2008, Palestine were able to play their first international match at home, against Jordan, since the affiliation of their football association to FIFA in 
1998," FIFA said.

The FIFA presidential award went to women's football in recognition of the worldwide development that the sport has undergone.

It was presented to the US women's national team in recognition of their outstanding performances on the field and their immense contribution to increasing the popularity of the women's game.

FIFA also announced that the Fair Play award to the president and team captain of the Turkish Football Association, Mahmut Ozgener and Tuncay Sanli respectively, as well as their counterparts at the Football Federation of Armenia, President Ruben Hayrapetyan and team captain Sargis Hovsepyan.

"During the 6 September Armenia against Turkey FIFA World Cup qualification match, the presidents of both countries shook hands after decades of distrust and diplomatic silence between the two countries," FIFA said. dpa