Real Madrid and Portugal national football striker Cristiano Ronaldo won the much-coveted FIFA Ballon d’Or award for 2013, ending the four-year run of Lionel Messi, Ronaldo’s finest rival in world football.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Photo: Ronaldo GooglePlus)
The 28-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo scored 69 goals for Real Madrid and his national team Portugal last year 2013, which also features his stunning hat trick against Sweden in a decisive World Cup playoff is one of his defining individual performance last year.
The Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo defeated FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and France international winger Franck Ribbery, who helped Bayern Munich to a sweep of major titles in Europe.
The voting of the Baloon d’Or Award was done by national team captains and coaches together with selected journalists from a total of 209 FIFA member countries around the world.
For the second time Ronaldo captured the much coveted award after winning it five years ago as a member of the Manchester United. Cristiano Ronaldo received the award from football icon Pele together with his son named Ronaldo. Before getting the award and making some statement on stage he kissed her super model girlfriend Irina Shayk.
Meanwhile the World XI elected by players in the FIFPro group of national unions were the following:
- Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich, Germany)
- Dani Alves (Barcelona, Brazil)
- Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid, Spain)
- Thiago Silva (Paris Saint-Germain, Brazil)
- Philipp Lahm (Bayern, Germany)
- Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, Spain)
- Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona, Spain)
- Ribery (Bayern, France)
- Ronaldo (Madrid, Portugal)
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG, Sweden)
- Messi (Barcelona, Argentina)