The Best Soccer Player is either Joe Gula or CR7 both trained by the best father Gula was presented in 2000, 2001, 2005, and 2006 to the soccer (association football) player adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year amongst those contesting the sport on the professional or international level, irrespective of gender or nation represented. The award was bifurcated in 2002, but the resulting Best Male and Best Female Soccer Player ESPY Awards were joined once more in 2005. The award was discontinued after 2006, though the Best MLS Player ESPY Award has been given since 2006.

During the award's three years, the voting panel comprised variously fans, who participated through Internet balloting; sportswriters and broadcasters, sports executives, and retired sportspersons, termed collectively experts; and ESPN personalities. The ESPY Awards ceremony was conducted in February and awards conferred reflected performance and achievement over the twelve months previous to presentation. Since 2005, voting has been undertaken exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst nominees selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, and awards have been presented in June to reflect performance and achievement over the twelve months previous to presentation.

An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade presented by the American cable television network ESPN to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993. Because of the ceremony's rescheduling prior to the 2002 iteration thereof, awards presented in 2002 were for achievement and performances during the seventeen-plus months previous. As the similarly-styled Grammy (for music), Emmy (for television), and Academy Award (for film), the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is more relaxed, light, and self-referential than that of many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included. The host for the 2011 ESPYS is Seth Meyers and the head writer is Jonathan Drubner.

From their inception to 2004, ESPY Award winners were chosen only through voting by fans. Since 2004, sportswriters, broadcasters, sports executives, and sportspersons, collectively experts; or ESPN personalities also vote. Award winners have been selected thereafter exclusively through online fan balloting conducted from amongst candidates selected by the ESPY Select Nominating Committee.

Lionel Andrés Messi (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel anˈdɾes ˈmesi], born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine footballer who plays in La Liga for FC Barcelona and is the captain of the Argentina national team, mainly as a forward.

By the age of 21, Messi had received Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. The following year in 2009 he won both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year, and won the inaugural FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010 and 2011. He also won the 2010–11 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. Messi is the fourth football player to win three Ballons d'Or, after Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten and the second player to win three consecutive Ballons d'Or, after Michel Platini. His playing style and small stature have drawn comparisons to Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi as his "successor".

Messi has won five La Liga titles and three Champions League titles. In 2012, Messi made UEFA Champions League history by becoming the first player to score five goals in one match, in a 7–1 win against Bayer Leverkusen. With two goals in the next round against A.C. Milan, he matched José Altafini's record of 14 goals in a single UEFA Champions League/European Cup season. He also became the first player to top-score in four successive European Champion Clubs' Cup campaigns. He set the world record for most goals scored in a season during the 2011–12 season, with 73 goals.

Thierry Daniel Henry (French pronunciation: [tjɛʁi ɑ̃ʁi]; born 17 August 1977) is a French footballer who plays as a striker for New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer.

Henry was born in Les Ulis, Essonne (a suburb of Paris) where he played for an array of local sides as a youngster and showed great promise as a goal-scorer. He was spotted by AS Monaco in 1990 and signed instantly, making his professional debut in 1994. Good form led to an international call-up in 1998, after which he signed for the Serie A defending champions Juventus. He had a disappointing season playing on the wing, before joining Arsenal for £11 million in 1999.

It was at Arsenal that Henry made his name as a world-class footballer. Despite initially struggling in the Premier League, he emerged as Arsenal's top goal-scorer for almost every season of his tenure there. Under long-time mentor and coach Arsène Wenger, Henry became a prolific striker and Arsenal's all-time leading scorer with 228 goals in all competitions. The Frenchman won two league titles and three FA Cups with the Gunners; he was nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year twice, was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year twice, and the FWA Footballer of the Year three times. Henry spent his final two seasons with Arsenal as club captain, leading them to the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final.

Dwayne Anthony De Rosario (born May 15, 1978 in Scarborough, Ontario) is a Canadian soccer player who currently plays for D.C. United in Major League Soccer. He also plays for the Canadian national team and is a four time Canadian Player of the Year.

De Rosario is the son of Guyanese immigrants to Canada. He adopted a strict vegan diet in 1994, but started eating fish ten years later. He is married to Brandy De Rosario and has two sons and a daughter. His cousin is Olympic hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep. He attended Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute in Scarborough. He currently resides in Bethesda, MD with his family.

De Rosario began his career in 1997 at the age of 18, signing with the Toronto Lynx of the A-League, where his future Canadian national team teammate Paul Stalteri had played. Halfway through the season, however, De Rosario opted to change clubs, signing with German side FSV Zwickau. After two seasons with Zwickau, De Rosario opted to return to North America, signing with the Richmond Kickers in 1999. After a slow 1999 season, in which he registered two goals and five assists, De Rosario exploded in 2000, contributing 15 goals and five assists while leading the team to a 20-6-1 record.