According to Italian newspaper Tuttosport, the Juventus goalkeeper has triumphed in the most prestigious award of the year.

Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon celebrates Italy's 2-0 win over Germany in the World Cup 2006 semi-final at Dortmund stadium in Germany, July 2006. English champions Chelsea are set to make an audacious bid to bring Buffon to Stamford Bridge. [AFP]

The judges of France Football magazine had to hand in their votes by Monday night and rumour has it that Gianluigi Buffon has won the Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) award ahead of Real Madrid's Fabio Cannavaro and Arsenal's Thierry Henry as the top footballer in Europe.

This would be the second time ever that a goalkeeper won this award, which is handed to the best player in Europe according to various voting journalists. The previous goalkeeper was the legendary Russian Lev Yashin.

This award would be the perfect cherry on top of the icing for Buffon, who won the World Cup in July with some amazing displays and without surrendering a goal to a player from another team during the run of play. Buffon chose to remain with Juventus despite the Bianconeri being demoted to Serie B in the aftermath of the Calciopoli match fixing scandal.

Last year's winner was Barcelona's Ronaldinho, and if the reports are true, the Brazilian star did not even make it into the top three due to his poor World Cup performance. Ronaldinho, however, did come away with the FIFPro World Player of the Year award on Monday, which is voted upon by professional footballers.