"I don't think it was a surprise to anyone this week that the AC Milan and Brazilian playmaker Kaka won the FIFA World Player of the Year ahead of second place Lionel Messi from Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United.

Kaka is a brilliant footballer . . . but he also so much more than that. In these days when so many players are in the news for the wrong reasons (I will talk about that later in this column), Kaka is the perfect role model. He wears a T-shirt under his jersey which says 'I belong to Jesus'. You never hear stories about Kaka being drunk and generally acting like an idiot. You do not see him hanging out at celebrity parties or anything like that. He is a serious footballer and doesn't take his skill for granted.

He helped AC Milan win the Champions League last year ¿ his performances against Manchester United were exceptional. What I really like about Kaka is that he makes everyone around him look good. He is not just out for himself. If he sees a teammate in a better position he will pass to him. But if he realises it is up to him to score he will go and do that. He has such superb speed and over the past few years he has become stronger and is able to shake off challenges. Another reason why I love this player is that he is so humble. He realises that he is not bigger than the game itself.

Even though Milan are not doing that well in the Italian league this season, Kaka is always in great form. And like last year, they look excellent in the Champions League.

He is only 25 years old and has many great years ahead of him ¿ especially since he takes such pride in keeping himself in shape.

If you watched him on the weekend in the World Club Championship final against Boca Juniors, you could easily see why he is the greatest player in the world right now.

Kaka scored one goal and set up two more last Sunday to lead Milan to the 4-2 victory over Boca. He is such a pleasure to watch.

This is the third accolade for Kaka this year. He also won European football's Golden Ball and World Soccer magazine's Player of the Year award.

And Kaka is the fifth Brazilian to win the FIFA Player of the Year title. He joined the great striker Ronaldo who won the trophy three times, Ronaldinho who won it twice, and Romario and Rivaldo who both won it once.

I also have to say fair play to Messi and Ronaldo who are both young superstars who could quite easily win this award one day. Both players have really given so much to their respective teams and both are so exciting to watch. Kaka, Messi and Ronaldo ¿ not bad company!

Brazil really does produce the best players in the world ¿ and not just men but women as well.

It was a double act for Brazil at the awards when Marta was named the FIFA Women's Player of the Year. And that announcement came as no surprise to anyone who watched the Women's World Cup from China this past summer.

Marta is exceptional. As far as I am concerned she could play on many men's teams such is her superb technique.

Marta was also the top scorer of the this year's World Cup with seven goals and she is still only 21-years-old. I was quite amazed by some of the moves she put on in the World Cup. The lady has skills.

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CAPELLO

Like some I am a little unhappy that England didn't name an Englishman as manager of their national team. First let me say that I greatly admire Italian coach Fabio Capello whose record speaks for itself.

But come on! Nearly every major football country has someone from that country as the manager ¿ except Portugal perhaps and even then he is a Brazilian and the Portuguese are Brazil are very close historically.

I just find it sad when the FA cannot find an Englishman to do the job. Right now a German is the manager of Germany, an Italian is the manager of Italy, a Dutchman is the manager of Holland, a Frenchman is the manager of France, a Spaniard is the manager of Spain and on and on.

There are a number of very good English managers who could take over England ¿ especially my friend Harry Redknapp. It does not reflect well on the country which invented the game.

Now having said all of that, I believe that since Capello has been appointed everyone in England should get behind him. The press over there have this habit of really trying to knock the manager down and I hope they will not do it this time. Being manager of England is one of the toughest jobs in football in the world.

Capello has won over a dozen titles with AC Milan, AS Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid so I know all the players will respect him.

He is known to be very strong and will not suffer fools. He will make the players work hard and no one will get an easy ride. You can't argue with that, can you?

I know that he hardly speaks English but I believe he will learn it quickly as he learned Spanish quickly when he went to Real Madrid.

Since they were beaten by Croatia recently and subsequently knocked out of Euro 2008, English fans have been down understandably. Hopefully Capello will get the team back where they belong for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

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BAD BEHAVIOUR

It was disheartening to hear this week about the bad behaviour of Manchester United players at a Christmas party on Monday night. Obviously the United players were very happy to have beaten Liverpool the day before but what followed was not pleasant. First off, there was an allegation of rape against one of United's young up and coming players. That is under Police investigation so I can't really say one way or the other about it here.

But I understand that the players, led by Rio Ferdinand, first of all told their wives and girlfriends to stay away and then proceeded to go to a casino in the afternoon, then a hotel where they started drinking champagne, vodka and beer into the early hours.

They also hired a bunch of lap dancers and generally got out of control.

This is happening far too much in English football. And I bet that Sir Alex Ferguson is furious about what happened. When Ferguson first started at United in the 1980s he managed to get rid of the drinking culture which was there. I expect him to kick some behinds this week.

Players today get paid enormous amounts of money and are always in the news. While Kaka is on the sports pages, things like this are on the front pages and that is not where you want to be. After all, whether they like it or not, players like Ferdinand, Rooney and the like are role models and they have to start acting like it. It's funny that you do not hear stories of drunken players at clubs such as AC Milan and Juventus. I think it is a culture thing but that culture has to change. They are paid a lot of money and they have to be more responsible ¿ especially since this is not the first time stories like this have come out.

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PREMIERSHIP

Manchester United again got the better of Liverpool last Sunday when they won 1-0 thanks to a Tevez goal. This is United's sixth victory over Liverpool in seven meetings. But while it was a tense match you couldn't really call it pretty. It was a typical English fast paced game which definitely needed a bit more finesse and a little less pace.

But games between these two rivals are always like this and United were obviously hoping for all three points with leaders Arsenal taking on Chelsea later in the day in a match which was a bit bad tempered.

As it turned out Arsenal took all three points in their 1-0 victory over the Blues so going into the weekend before Christmas United and the Gunners are locked in a tight battle.

Chelsea were hit though when their captain John Terry was forced to come off with a foot injury and he will be out for a few weeks at least.

But the Arsenal game that really impressed me was their 3-2 win over Blackburn this week in the League Cup quarterfinals. What I liked about that game was that Arsenal fielded their youngsters and they still won against a strong Blackburn side.

Arsene Wenger has so much faith in his young reserves and they repay him. He gets in these young players and molds them beautifully and they play the Arsenal way ¿ one touch football. He really is one of the best coaches on the planet.

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THE BIG MATCH

On Sunday the biggest match will be in Spain when Barcelona host Real Madrid on Sunday at Camp Nou. This is usually a cracker and I can't see why it will be any different this weekend.

However Barca will be missing Messi who is set to be out for five weeks with a thigh injury. The little man is on fire this season and is on top of the goal scoring charts. He is becoming more and more important to Barca and is still only 20 years old.

Last march Messi scored a hat-trick against Real Madrid in a 3-3 draw at Camp Nou and Barca are four points behind leaders Real.

Luckily for Barca they have their goal-scoring machine back ¿ Eto'o and he always plays well with Ronaldinho. Sometimes two players really click together and these two do with Eto'o making those deadly runs and Ronaldinho giving that superb pass.

But Real are hitting their stride right now.

Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wesley Sneijder both scored a goal each on Sunday to lead Real over Osasuna 2-0 and re-establish their four-point lead at the top.

Raul is also on his game as is Robinho.

The game should be a classic.