Liverpool and England striker Michael Owen was named European Footballer of the Year by the French magazine France Footballtoday.
Owen, who turned 22 last week, became the first English player to win the prestigious award since Kevin Keegan in 1979.
He is also the first Liverpool player to take the prize. Keegan played for the English club but won the award in both 1978 and 1979 when he played for Hamburg SV in Germany.
Owen who helped England to qualify top of their group for the 2002 World Cup finals scoring a hat-trick in a 5-1 thrashing of Germany in Munich, got 176 points ahead of Spaniard Raul of Real Madrid, who was second on 140 points.
Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, an insipartion as Bayern won the European Cup in May, was third on 114 points.
Manchester United midfielder David Beckham came in fourth on 102 points ahead of Italy's Francesco Totti and Portugal's Luis Figo, who were fifth and sixth respectively.
Two other English footballers apart from Keegan and Owen have won the award - Stanley Matthews in 1956 and Bobby Charlton in 1966, the year England won the World Cup.