During the closing gala, the Audi Football Night, the winners of the Globe Soccer Awards were announced: the Portuguese Jorge Mendes won the award as Best Agent, the Spaniard Miguel Angel Gil received the award as Best Director, and the Italian Adriano Galliani received a Special Career Award.

Jorge Mendes was the great favourite in the run-up to the awards and had no rivals in the final choice.

There was wonderful evidence of the affection in which he is held by the stars who accompanied his rise.
Unbeknown to Mendes, Josè Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo sprang a surprise by sending a double video message which was shown in the rooms of the Armani Pavilion inside the highest tower in the world.

Mendes appreciated both the delicacy and sensitivity of Cristiano Ronaldo and the liveliness of Mourinho (“dear Jorge, if Globe Soccer is serious, you are the only possible winner”) and received the award with great emotion.

Adriano Galliani enjoyed a level of appreciation which went beyond all imagining. In the running as a candidate for best director of the year, he was deliberately withdrawn from this category since his merits went beyond performance in a single lucky season. The jury wanted to recognise the work of a manager who has made AC Milan the most successful team in the world. The AC Milan family celebrated, with Capello, Van Basten and Rijkaard as witnesses to an era, and Allegri, Tassotti, Gandini and Laura Masi as protagonists of the past and the present: Galliani’s Globe Soccer Award is also a sign of the great esteem in which Italian football is held, also here in Dubai where it stood out for the quality and professionalism of its representatives.

The award received by Galliani, who was the first to win it as AC Milan was the first to win the new club world cup, will be given in the future to other key players on the international scene.

Globe Soccer 2010 for director of the year ended with the award going to the Spaniard Miguel Angel Gil, of Atletico Madrid, for having led his team, after so many difficulties, to victory in two cups and playing in three finals in 2010.

Perhaps it’s the idea of experiencing the urban miracle of a metropolis growing between the sea and the desert, but the bond which Globe Soccer has created between Dubai and football has proven to be unbreakable. Media attention, a massive TV presence, stimulating work sessions. All with the involvement of key representatives of the football world and market operators who are present for almost a week at each edition, before, during and after the scheduled activities. In the first two editions, all the footballing continents were accredited, football institutions were among the guests (FIFA, UEFA, AFC, EFAA, ECA, agents and directors, federations, leagues, the leading authorities from the United Arab Emirates) and several teams (including teams from Egypt and Qatar, as well as a significant European presence). There were also extraordinary free-time activities, with trips amidst the desert dunes and the incredible inauguration of Burj Kalifa (the highest tower in the world) at the heart of the first edition and the outstanding choreography for New Year in Dubai at the second, with fireworks let off from 160 floors of the building which is the pride of a nation which can offer sea and sun for those coming from a cold winter.