Cristiano Ronaldo has been awarded his third and least unexpected Ballon d’Or, with a year of individual overachievement that included 56 goals for Real Madrid earning him more than twice as many votes as Lionel Messi, his one-time Ballon-hogging nemesis, in the race for Fifa’s main individual honour.
In all Ronaldo, who first won the award in 2008 and was runner-up to Messi three times before winning again last year, took 37.66% of the votes, with Germany’s Manuel Neuer (15.72%) finishing just 0.04% behind Messi.
“It has been an incredible year. I would like to continue the work that I have done so far. I want to try to improve, to become better as each day goes by,” said Ronaldo. “I never thought that I would bring this trophy back home on three occasions and I want to win it again. I want to become one of the greatest players of all time.”
Votes were cast by the captains and coaches of every national side and a journalist from each country. Among the dissenting voices was that of England’s coach, Roy Hodgson, who selected neither Ronaldo nor Messi in his top three and had Javier Mascherano in first place. Every other British voter made Ronaldo their No1 except for Wales’s Ashley Williams and Chris Coleman, who perhaps unsurprisingly preferred Gareth Bale.