Andriy Shevchenko

Shevchenko's 2004 was the cleanest striker season of the early century's Serie A: the Scudetto with Milan, won on his goals, and the Ballon d'Or as its formal receipt. His economy was the legend — no waste step, no decorative touch, the first touch already aimed, the finish arriving before the goalkeeper had set his feet. Dynamo Kyiv before Milan: the Shevchenko-Rebrov axis that knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League, then the San Siro decade, 175 goals in black and red.

For Ukraine he was the nation's football identity entire: the first independent Ukraine's first great player, the 2006 World Cup quarter-final reached essentially on his back. He returned to Kyiv as war came, and his post-career is his country's service — president of the Ukrainian FA with the sound of artillery in the background. Of the award's winners, none has carried a nation's meaning further from the field.