Ronaldo wins another Ballon d’Or
Print Edition
FOR the third time, Cristiano Ronaldo was voted the world’s best football player. He hopes it also brought him closer to being remembered as one of the greatest of all time.
Ronaldo won the FIFA Ballon d’Or in a rout on Monday, racking up more than twice the votes of Lionel Messi, who edged German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer into third.
The Real Madrid and Portugal forward’s latest hat trick tied him with Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo of Brazil on three FIFA awards. The original Ballon d’Or presented by “France Football” magazine was won by Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten three times each.
Only Messi’s four FIFA awards is ahead of the 29-year-old Ronaldo.
“I want to become one of the greatest players of all time," Ronaldo said through a translator in his speech. “Of course, this requires a lot of effort and I hope to get there.”
Ronaldo retained football’s highest individual honor after scoring 61 goals last year. His record tally of 17 in a Champions League season helped Madrid win an unprecedented 10th European Cup title.
He has kept up the pace since FIFA’s voting college — national team captains and coaches, plus selected journalists in 180 countries — cast ballots in November.
Ronaldo helped Madrid take the Club World Cup title last month to cap a Spanish-record 22-match winning streak.
He won his first FIFA award in 2008 as a Manchester United player and on Monday cited his mentor there, Alex Ferguson, as an inspiration.
“He would say, ‘Cristiano, you are the best, don’t worry about the rest.’ He’s fantastic. I miss him,” Ronaldo said.
Ronaldo received 37.66 percent of points in a 23-candidate ballot. Messi got 15.76 percent and Neuer 15.72 percent.
Germans expressed disappointment yesterday after World Cup-winning goalkeeper Neuer came third.
Neuer, who was outstanding at last year’s World Cup in Brazil and also helped Bayern Munich clinch a domestic double, has let in just four goals in 17 league games this season.
“I think this is unfair,” said former World Cup-winning captain and coach Franz Beckenbauer. “It seems that in this vote success does not count as much as appearances.”
Germany had been hoping for a clean sweep of awards after national coach Joachim Loew won coach of the year, while VfL Wolfsburg coach Ralf Kellermann was voted best coach in women’s football.
Wolfsburg’s Germany midfielder Nadine Kessler was voted best female player.
In fan voting for the most beautiful goal to win the Puskas Award, James Rodriguez’s volley for Colombia against Uruguay at the World Cup beat Ireland forward Stephanie Roche’s strike for Peamount United in October 2013.
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