Pele given honorary Ballon d`Or

Zurich: Brazilian great Pele was finally awarded a Ballon d`Or in Zurich on Monday, despite retiring in 1977, co-organisers France Football announced.

When France Football created the Ballon d`Or in 1956 it was for the best player playing in Europe and Pele never played club football in the `old continent`. By the time FIFA inaugurated the world footballer of the year award in 1991, Pele had long since retired. But Monday he was given an honorary Ballon d`Or to rectify a historic wrong. "For regulation reasons the king is not on the list of Ballon d`Or winners, an anomaly that was corrected in 2013," said France Football on their website. In 2010 the Ballon d`Or and FIFA`s world footballer of the year awards, which had run separately for 19 years, were amalgamated to create the FIFA Ballon d`Or for the best player in the world. Pele had revealed the news himself to Brazilian press on Sunday, saying: "I won three World Cups but during a period when the Ballon d`Or didn`t exist (for non-European based players). "But FIFA has decided to give me one." The 2013 Ballon d`Or will be won by either favourite Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid and Portugal, Barcelona and Argentina`s reigning four-time winner Lionel Messi, or Bayern Munich and France winger Franck Ribery.