Real Madrid's Fabio Cannavaro, the captain of Italy's soccer World Cup champion team, kisses his Golden Ball award. (Francois Mori/Associated Press)

He stands a mere five-foot-nine, but Real Madrid's Fabio Cannavaro is a giant among men on the soccer field.

The Italian national team captain is a bullish and ruthless defender, a striker's worst nightmare come true. He routinely out-jumps opponents who have six inches on him, makes overhead volley clearances (unheard of for a central defender) and is a flawless tackler who maintains sound defensive positioning at all times.

He's agile, he's quick, he's strong, and he reads the game better than any defender alive. Rarely has an opposing forward ever gotten the better of the diminutive Italian.

That Cannavaro has been the best defender in the game for close to a decade is without question. With his coronation Monday as the European player of the year, Cannavaro now simply has the medal to prove it.

Not since Germany's Matthias Sammer in 1996 has a defender won the prestigious Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) but in a year when defence won Italy the World Cup, Cannavaro's selection is more than appropriate.

Cannavaro was born in Naples and most of his childhood was spent at the San Paolo stadium as a ball boy where he watched Diego Maradona help his hometown team, Napoli, win two Italian league titles. Scouts for the club spotted Cannavaro playing and he eventually signed with the team while still a teenager before making his first-team debut in 1993.

Cannavaro was clearly one of Italian soccer's emerging young talents, so Napoli, struggling financially in the post-Maradona era, sold the defender to Parma.

It was at Parma, the city famous for its prosciutto, where Cannavaro's star began to shine.

Backed by goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, he and Frenchman Lillian Thuram formed one of the most fearsome defensive partnerships in soccer, helping the modest club to its best-ever Italian league finish in 1997, a mere two points behind Serie A champions Juventus. Cannavaro also played a leading role in Parma winning a hatful of domestic and European trophies, including two Italian Cups (1999 and 2002) and the UEFA Cup in 1999.

Cannavaro was a key member of Italy's under-21 team that won back-to-back European championships in 1994 and 1996, and he also played for his country at the Atlanta Olympics, before graduating to Italy's senior team in 1997 when he made his debut for the Azzurri.

Playing alongside fellow defenders Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini, Cannavaro became one of Italy's most reliable and gifted players over the years, distinguishing himself with his solid defensive play at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups and Euro 2000. Following Maldini's international retirement in 2002, Cannavaro took over as captain of Italy.

Cannavaro, left, and Italy's defence shut down French superstar Zinedine Zidane in the World Cup final. (Jasper Juinen/Associated Press)

Prior to the start of the 2002-03 season, Parma sold Cannavaro to Inter Milan for a hefty 23-million euros, but the defender never quite settled in Milan due to injury problems and he struggled to duplicate his outstanding form at Parma in the fashion capital of the world. Inter decided to cut its losses two years later when they sold Cannavaro to rivals Juventus for a cut-rate price of nine-million euros.

Reunited with former Parma teammates Thuram and Buffon, Cannavaro experienced a career renaissance in Turin, as he again established himself as one of the game's best defenders and helped the bianconeri win back-to-back league titles (later revoked when Juventus was found guilty of influencing the appointment of referees for their games in the infamous Italian match-fixing scandal).

It was this past summer that Cannavaro, who was a ball boy at the San Paolo stadium during Italy's epic shootout loss to Argentina in the 1990 World Cup semifinals, achieved hero status.

Cannavaro was the backbone of a stingy and impenetrable Italian defence that only gave up two goals (one, an own-goal, the other, from the penalty spot) in seven games as the Azzurri won the World Cup for the first time in 24 years.

Captain Cannavaro was instrumental in Italy's World Cup triumph, shutting down world-class strikers the calibre of Milan Baros, Andriy Shevchenko and Miroslav Klose along the way. He saved his best performance for last, though, when he went toe-to-toe with French striker Thierry Henry in the final.

Renowned as the game's most lethal goal scorer, Henry was kept in check by Cannavaro before being substituted in extra time. Physically drained and kept off the score-sheet, a frustrated Henry slumped off the field like so many of Cannavaro's victims before him.

Many heralded Cannavaro as the best player in Germany but, inexplicably, the Golden Ball award as the tournament MVP went to France's Zinedine Zidane. Cannavaro finished runner-up.

No matter. Cannavaro was named to the World Cup all-star team and won the most important award of all: the World Cup.

Today, the 33-year-old Cannavaro plies his trade in Spain, having transferred to Real Madrid in the off-season. In an ironic twist, he wears No. 5, Zidane's old number with the Spanish club.

And like Zizou, he has won the prestigious Ballon d'Or in the same year he led his country to World Cup glory.

Not bad for a Naples kid who used to watch his heroes from the sidelines.