- Image Credit: AFP
- Brazilian football legend Pele (R) applauds next to Real Madrid's Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo as he cries after receiving the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or award for player of the year during the FIFA Ballon d'Or award ceremony at the Kongresshaus in Zurich on January 13, 2014.
Zurich: Portugal and Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo was named the
world’s best footballer for the second time on Monday, preventing his great
rival Lionel Messi from winning the award for a fifth year in a row.
Argentine Messi, hampered by uncharacteristic injury problems at Barcelona
late in the year, and Frenchman Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich were the other
candidates for the prize, officially known as the Fifa Ballon d’Or.
Jupp Heynckes, now retired, was named coach of the year for the first time
after his Bayern Munich team won an unprecedented Champions League, Bundesliga
and German Cup treble.
Ronaldo was also voted Fifa Player of the Year in 2008, before Messi began a
run of four successive titles.
In 2010, the award was fused with the Ballon D’Or award previously handed out
by France Football magazine.
Although Ronaldo did not win any major titles last season, he has been in
unstoppable goalscoring form.
The 28-year-old has 20 La Liga goals this season for Real Madrid and netted a
record nine times in the Champions League group stage.
The high point of his year, however, came with Portugal, when he scored a
stunning hat-trick and almost single-handedly beat Sweden 3-1 in the second leg
of their World Cup play-off tie to send his country through to the 2014 finals
in Brazil.
The team of the year featured Manuel Neuer in goal, Philipp Lahm, Sergio
Ramos, Thiago Silva and Dani Alves in defence, midfielders Andres Iniesta, Xavi
and Ribery, with Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Messi in attack.
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