Ekun Samuel, 13 December 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo has been named the World's Best Player for the fourth time, after helping his teams on both club and country to pick up Uefa Champions League and Euro 2016 respectively. Lionel Messi became second, while Antonio Greizman came third after a scintillating display with both Atletico and France reaching two finals without clinching any of them.
Ronaldo won his first Ballon D' Or in 2008 when at Manchester United and picked up the prize again in 2013 and 2014.
Speaking to France Football at Bernabue after the award, Cristiano expressed his delight:
"It's a really great honour to have won my fourth Ballon d'Or. I'm very happy and proud to be receiving this award and I want to thank everyone who works with me and my Real Madrid and Portugal teammates.
"When you win it for the first time the feelings are different. I felt great joy and it was like a dream come true. I was 23 or 24 and it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. My emotions today are similar to that. This is my job, it's my profession. I always want to be the best and I work hard and make sacrifices to achieve that. It's really significant for me to have won an award like this one. Obviously, the team comes first and had I not won anything with Real Madrid or Portugal, I wouldn't be receiving this award."
"This has possibly been the best year of my career, both on a team and individual level. Winning something with Portugal for the first time in the nation's history was something that was missing from my CV and was one of the highlights, but we mustn't forget the Champions League triumph with Real Madrid, in which I was the competition's top scorer and scored the best goal. This has likely been the best year of my career."
Ronaldo now has one deficit on Lionel Messi who has won it five times, and in the meantime Ronaldo has added one more Ballon d'Or to his collection than Platini, Cruyff and Van Basten achieved."
