Well, as the title says, everybody’s favorite superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has won Ballon d’Or for the fourth time in his career, and he did that in the almost perfect season. His Portugal won Euro 2016 and his club, Real Madrid, took the Champions League, which makes this prize practically a cherry on top of a perfect cake!
“A great honor to receive my fourth golden ball” were the words that Cristiano spoke after he received the trophy and added “The emotion is like the first one. It’s the dream come true again. I never thought in my mind to win the golden ball four times so I’m so pleased and happy. I have the opportunity to thank all my teammates, the national team, Real Madrid, all the people and players who helped me to win this individual award. So as you can imagine, I feel so proud and happy to receive this amazing and beautiful ball.”
As the football fans already know, Ronaldo is just one Ballon d’Or trophy behind is biggest rival Lionel Messi (won five so far) who has come second, naturally. Atlético Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann came third, with Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy finishing eighth and his team-mate Riyad Mahrez seventh, the entire list can be found at the bottom of the post. As you know, this season was very good but also very turbulent for our star Cristiano. In May of this year, Real triumphed over Atlético and became European Champion for a record 11th time and his national team Portugal, in just two months after that, triumphed at Euro 2016 in France which was a great deal for them because Portugal got to raise a major trophy for the first time ever. That was some game for him and his team, although he had to leave it because of an injury in min 25. Ronaldo being himself stayed the entire game on the sidelines to cheer his teammates, and that certainly helped.
Cristiano Ronaldo, to those that do not know, scored 48 goals in 52 games for club and national team in 2016, which is more than admirable. Last Ballon d’Or trophy came to him in 2014 when it was tied with the Fifa World Player of the Year accolade, so it was pretty much a two-for-one thing. This year things are somewhat different and the trophy was handed out by France Football magazine separately from Fifa, which moved Cristiano clear off the three‑times winners Marco van Basten, Michel Platini, and the late Johan Cruyff. As you will be able to see in the list bellow, Cristiano’s teammate Gareth Bale, that helped his home team Wales reach Euro 2016 semi-finals found himself on the sixth place.
Ballon d’Or list:
1 Cristiano Ronaldo
2 Lionel Messi
3 Antoine Griezmann
4 Luis Suárez
5 Neymar
6 Gareth Bale
7 Riyad Mahrez
8 Jamie Vardy
9 =Pepe
9 =Gianluigi Buffon
11 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
12 Rui Patricio
13 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
14 =Arturo Vidal
14 =Paul Pogba
16 Robert Lewandowski
17 =Dimitri Payet
17 =Toni Kroos
17 =Luka Modric
