Real Madrid of Spain and Portugal national team captain, Cristiano Ronaldo was crowned FIFA World Footballer of the Year award ahead of arch rival, Lionel Messi, Barcelona’s Argentine ‘martian’ and German custodian, Manuel Neuer at a glittering FIFA awards ceremony in Zurich on Monday night.
Ronaldo earned his second consecutive and third Ballon D’Or victory with an overwhelming 37.66% of the votes garnered from the 181 national team coaches, 182 national team captains, and 181 media representatives who voted. Messi trailed in his wake, amassing 15.76% of the votes to finish second whilst Neuer completed the voting in third position with 15.72% of the votes.
Ronaldo, 29, was instrumental in Real Madrid’s La Decima UEFA Champions League triumph last year — their first in 12 years — contributing 17 goals in just 11 appearances thus smashing Messi’s previous record of 15 Champions League goals in a single season.
He further scored 31 times for Los Blancos in the Spanish La Liga which wasn’t enough to stop neighbours, Atletico Madrid from winning the title. His goals earned him the pichichi trophy, as the highest goal scorer in the league. He also topped the list in Europe, where he shared the golden boot with Luis Suarez, who scored the same number of goals as Ronaldo, in the English Premier League.
Ronaldo also picked up the Copa del Rey last year, despite being injured for the final against Barcelona courtesy of a brace from the World’s most expensive footballer, Gareth Bale.
He started the 2014/2015 season with his usual aplomb and already has 35 goals, winning the UEFA Super Cup in September and rounded off the year with FIFA World Club Cup in December where he failed to score in both appearances.
The only real disappointment for him was that a knee injury contributed to an underwhelming World Cup for the Portugal captain.
Other winners on the night were his Real Madrid teammate, James Rodriguez who won the Goal of the Year for his sublime effort for Colombia against Uruguay, who made the last 16 match at the World Cup.
World Cup winning coach, Joachim Loew of Germany won the Coach of the Year ahead of Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti who won four titles in 2014 and set a 22-game winning streak, and Diego Simeone of Atletico Madrid who surprisingly won the Spanish La Liga and got to the final of the UEFA Champions League.
Photo Credit: CelebMagazine.net, Ask.fm
