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According to SkySport24, AC Milan's flamboyant Brazilian Ronaldinho has won the 2009 Golden Foot award.

Only players over the age of 29 are eligible for this prestigious award, which commemorates both their personalities along with their personal achievements and those with their team. Rather than being an achievement for just the previous year, on which the Brazilian could be thought to have very few grounds to win an award, the Golden Foot celebrates the player's entire career.

Ronaldinho will receive the award in a ceremony in Monte Carlo tonight, after which he will leave a permanent mould of his footprints on the 'The Champions Promenade' on the waterfront. All previous winners of the award, including the likes of Alessandro Del Piero and Ronaldo, have done the same in an unusual 'walk of fame'.

As such, a player can only win the Golden Foot award once, although there is no limit on the number of times they can be nominated. In fact, David Beckham has been nominated on every occasion apart from 2003.

The other nominees for this year's award were Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Luis Figo (Portugal) Steven Gerrard (England), Ryan Giggs (Wales), Thierry Henry (France), Raul Gonzalez Blanco (Spain), Francesco Totti (Italy), David Beckham (England) and David Trezeguet (France).

Ronaldinho joins an elite group of players to have won the award since its inception in 2003, and the previous winners are listed below.

Roberto Carlos (2008)
Alessandro Del Piero (2007)
Ronaldo (2006)
Andriy Shevchenko (2005)
Pavel Nedved (2004)
Roberto Baggio (2003)