The Laureus World Sports Awards are presented annually to the best individuals and teams from the global sporting year. The first edition was held in the year 2000, and now in its eight years of existence, the Laureus Awards are considered the "Oscars of Sport".


FC Barcelona have been rewarded with the Laureus Spirit of Sport Award in recognition of their historic agreement with UNICEF.


The Ceremony was held in the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona and FC Barcelona were among the winners for the revolutionary agreement Barca closed with UNICEF this year.


The Barça president send a special message during his acceptance speech in the ceremony on this evening:

This is dedicated to all the most vulnerable children around the world, to FC Barcelona’s fans and members and to everybody who has supported this initiative. Barca is more than a Club. We promote social values and try to be the best and always by being sporting.

FC Barcelona´s first team was nominated for the "Team of Year 2006" award in recognition of the major titles won this year and the wonderful football the team plays. However, the award was presented to Italy, winners of the World Cup 2006 in Germany.


Other winners in this colourful and superbly organised event last night included the two tennis sensations, Serena Williams and Roger Federer.

England´s Football Association has nominated catalán and Ex-Barca youth Player Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal London for the "Best Young Player" Award 2006. The other nominations for the prestigious award are Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney (both Manchester United), Darren Bent (Charlton Athletic), Anton Ferdinand (West Ham United) y Aaron Lennon (Tottenham Hotspurs).
Young Cesc Fabregas, 18 years old, Ex-midfielder and product of the excellent FC Barcelona youth department is the upcoming star at Arsenal London. he had a splendid season and showed great performanaces through out the season in the English Premiership and Champions League.

FC Chelsea represents 3 of the nominees for the "Best Player" Award 2006: Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry. John Terry won the Award in 2005. Other nominees are Arsenal´s Tierry Henry, the only foreign nominee this year and winner of the Award in 2003 and 2004 and Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) and Wayne Rooney (Manchester United). Man U´s Rooney, the winner of the "Best Young Player" Award in 2005 is nominated in both categories.

FC Barcelona player´s Ronaldinho Gaucho and Lionel Messi have been nominated for the Laureus Awards, held in Barcelona for the first time on May 22. The Laureus Award is considered as sport's equivalent to the Film-Oscars. The seventh edition of the Laureus World Sports Awards will take place in the Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona. A list of nominated teams and athlets have been announced on Thursday. The presentation was held in Barcelona City Hall and was attended by Barcelona´s mayor Joan Clos and the president of Laureus, ex hurdler Edwin Moses.


The Laureus Award has six categories and Barcelona are represented in three of them:
Ronaldinho is one of the nominees for best sportsman of the year, along with Formula One driver Fernando Alonso, cyclist Lance Armstrong, tennis player Roger Federer, motorcyclist GP Valentino Rossi and golfer Tiger Woods.

Leo Messi has been nominated as one of sport's rising stars along with tennis player Rafa Nadal, golfer Paula Creamer, tennis player Andrew Murray, driver Danica Patrick and American footballer Ben Roethlisberger.
FC Barcelona as a club has been nominated as team of the year along with Liverpool (Champions League winners), Croatia (Davis Cup winners), New Zealand's rugby team, Renault (formula one constructers champions) and San Antonio Spurs (NBA winners).


Last year´s Laureus gala was held in Estoril, Portugal. Winner of last year´s "Best Sports People" Award were Swiss tennis player Roger Federer and English runner Kathy Holmes.

The Laureus World Sports awards are decided by a committee of 40 of the greatest sports stars in history, including Michael Jordan, Boris Becker, Sergey Bubka, Bobby Charlton, Sebastian Coe, 'Pele', Nadia Comaneci, Emerson Fittipaldi, Michael Johnson, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Severiano Ballesteros, Miguel Indurain, Gary Player and Mark Spitz.