As in previous years, the first award presented was the Best XI selected by the World Players' Union, which had been announced to the public long ago and held no suspense. The presenters were Zidane and Ballack.
Neuer was the goalkeeper. The back line consisted of Lahm, Ramos, Tiago Silva, and Alves; the midfield trio was Ribery, Xavi, and Iniesta; and the front three were Yang Yang, Ibrahimovic, and Messi.
Since the Best XI had already been announced, the winners came up to accept their awards and delivered a few brief speeches one after another before the ceremony moved on to the next award: the FIFA Presidential Award.
Blatter presented the award to former International Olympic Committee president Rogge. When Rogge took the stage to accept it, he also wished success to this year's two major sporting events, the Winter Olympics and the Brazil World Cup.
After Rogge, this year's FIFA awards ceremony featured another special segment: promotion for the Brazil World Cup.
Ronaldo and Neymar took the stage as representatives of Brazilian stars to build momentum for the Brazil World Cup. Both hoped Brazil would achieve good results at the World Cup on home soil—preferably, win the title.
FIFA then played a video honoring the Portuguese star Black Panther Eusébio, who had passed away the previous week.
The Best Women's Coach award went to Neid, head coach of the Germany Women's National Team. The Best Men's Coach award went to Vilanova, Barcelona's head coach. The Fair Play Award went to the Afghanistan Football Association, while the Puskas Award went to Ibrahimovic.
This year, FIFA also added a new award called the FIFA Honorary Golden Ball Award. Unlike the other permanent awards, this one had been created specifically for the King of Football, Pele.
When introducing Pele, Blatter described him