It may have been one of football's most open secrets but the margin of victory was remarkable just the same. Never in the nine-year history of the World Player of the Year award has one player managed to impress so many coaches.
Of the 132 national chiefs eligible to vote, 93 went for the 26-year-old Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, who famously switched from villain to hero within a couple of matches at France 98.
Ronaldo, winner for the past two years, came second despite the Internazionale striker having been plagued by mental and physical problems for the best part of nine months.
In third place was Davor Suker, Steve McManaman's prospective team-mate at Real Madrid next season. Suker, golden boot winner with his six goals in the World Cup for semi-finalists Croatia, might have been expected to be runner-up.
England's own sensation Michael Owen also made an impression, the 19-year-old squeezing into fourth place ahead of such luminaries as Gabriel Batistuta, Rivaldo, Dennis Bergkamp and Marcelo Salas.
Although none of the coaches placed Owen first, he gained eight second and 19 third place votes -including from the coach of the Argentinian team against whom he scored so memorably in France. Glenn Hoddle, however, left Owen out of his top three, the under-fire England coach choosing Zidane followed by Bergkamp and Ronaldo.
But at least he put pen to paper - unlike the Brazilians. Apparently, the losing World Cup finalists' former coach Mario Zagallo took umbrage and decided that, since he had quit his post, he would not vote. His replacement, the wonderfully named Wanderley Luxembourgo, decided he had not been in the job long enough to make a fair comparison.
Zidane, who rarely speaks above a whisper in his heavy regional accent, dedicated his award to his team-mates. Next week, in his first international appearance as the official world No.1, Zidane will step out at Wembley to play England.
He can't wait: "I've never played there before. It is the greatest thing in anyone's career to play at Wembley."
Zidane, who is also European Player of the Year, is enduring a tough season with Juventus. The Italian giants are languishing 14 points behind Fiorentina and, despite picking up a weekly cheque that most mortals could only dream about, he hinted that he might like to follow the likes of Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira and Frank Leboeuf into the Premiership. But not yet.
Zidane's contract with Juventus runs until 2004 after which, he said: "Who knows? I am leaving all doors open."
In a separate ceremony, the late Bobby Moore was inducted into Fifa's international Hall of Fame, the forum which honours the world's greatest players of past and present.
England's 1966 World Cup winning captain, who died of cancer six years ago at the age of 51, was one of five new inductees. He joins such footballing legends as Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Charlton, Ferenc Puskas, Johan Cruyff, Alfredo Di Stefano and Stanley Matthews.
Moore's widow Stephanie was in Barcelona to pick up the award: "This is a great honour," she said. "My only regret is that Bobby wasn't here in person to pick up the award."
