LUIS FIGO PIPS BECKHAM TO WORLD CROWN
Figo was hotly tipped to pick up the award - after producing his best for both club and country since a big money move to Real Madrid from rivals Barcelona.
Beckham, currently being rested from the Manchester United first team, picked up second place, with Figo's team-mate at Real, Raul third.
All of the national coaches are allowed to vote for their choices of first, second, and third place - however, they cannot choose players that they manage at national level.
Although Beckham picked up 238 points to Luis Figo's 250, he was actually placed first by more voters than the Portuguese star.
England coach Sven Goran Eriksson cast his three votes for Manchester United's Juan Sebastian Veron, Arsenal's Thierry Henry and Lazio's Alessandro Nesta.
France coach Roger Lemerre thought that Michael Owen, Veron and Luis Enrique should have picked up the prizes, whilst ex-Scotland coach Craig Brown chose Raul, Beckham and Henrik Larsson.
Eire boss Mick McCarthy decided that Rui Costa, Veron and Emmanuel Olisadebe were worthy winners, Northen Ireland's Sammy McIlroy selected Veron, Figo and Zinedine Zidane whilst Spanish coach Jose Antonio Camacho picked all La Liga based players in Roberto Carlos, Figo and Rivaldo.
Other British based players to win votes were Middlesbrough's Alen Boksic - who was selected by fellow countryman and Israel coach Miroslav Blazevic, and Roy Keane was one of former Dutch coach Luis van Gaal's choices - partly for his performances against Holland in the World Cup Qualifiers.
The Phillipines coach cast a vote for Arsenal's Patrick Vieira, and Celtic star Larsson also got a vote from Charlie Cook who is in charge of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Beckham and Figo were well clear at the top, with Raul picking up just 96 points, and narrowly beating Zinedine Zidane (94) and Rivaldo (92) to the bronze prize.
European Footballer of the Year Michael Owen's 61 points was enough for eighth place. Henry grabbed 15 points in 11th place, whereas team-mate Vieira (13) came 13th and Larsson (9) 14th.
Steven Gerrard (1 and =29th place) got one third place vote from Gary White of the Bahamas, the same amount as Keane.
Boksic's first place vote gave him five points and =17th place, with the Croatian gaining one point more than Manchester United striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
