Cristiano Ronaldo wins the 2017 Ballon d'Or
Cristiano Ronaldo won
the fifth Ballon d'Or of his career on Thursday, matching Lionel Messi as the
most-awarded winner of one of the sport's top individual honours.
Ronaldo won the award
for the second consecutive time, after a year that saw him help Madrid to a
third Champions League crown in four seasons and a first La Liga title in five
years, as well as the FIFA Club World Cup.
The 32-year-old scored
twice as Madrid beat Juventus 4-1 in the Champions League final in June, while
also finishing top scorer in the competition with 12 goals.
Ronaldo accepted the
award at a ceremony at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, where he said: "I feel
very happy, it's a fantastic moment in my career, I've been waiting for this
for a long time.
"This year has been
great, we won the Champions League and La Liga and, on a personal level, I was
a top scorer in the Champions League. Trophies help win these awards and we
have to thank my colleagues from Madrid and Portugal, it was very important for
me."
Barcelona's Messi
finished second in the voting, now conducted by a global panel of journalists
and organised by France Football magazine after a split from a partnership with
FIFA that ran from 2010-15. In October, Ronaldo also won FIFA's top award,
being named Best Men's Player for the second straight year.
Thursday's award marked
the seventh straight year that Messi and Ronaldo have finished in the top two
for the Ballon d'Or. No one else has won since Kaka in 2007, when Ronaldo was
second and Messi third.
Ronaldo previously won
in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016. Messi won the award four straight times from
2009-12, as well as in 2015.
Neymar, who moved from
Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain this summer, finished third for the second
time in his career. Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was fourth.
Two of Ronaldo's Real
Madrid teammates followed, with Luka Modric fifth and Sergio Ramos sixth as the
top defender on the list. Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann fell to 18th in
this year's voting after finishing third in 2016.
This award is the 10th
Ballon d'Or won by a Real Madrid player, and only Barcelona have won more with
11. This was also the seventh Ballon d'Or award won by a Portuguese player,
tying Germany and Netherlands for the most.
A day earlier, Ronaldo
became the first player in history to score a goal in each of the six Champions
League group games, when he netted Madrid's second against Borussia Dortmund on
Wednesday night.
The goal took him to 114
career goals in 146 Champions League games -- another of his personal records,
but his wider form has been a cause for concern this season.
Although he has scored
nine goals in the Champions League, he has only managed two goals and two
assists in 10 La Liga appearances, with Madrid eight points behind leaders
Barcelona after 14 games.
But Ronaldo, who
welcomed his fourth child recently, told L'Equipe last month that he's eager to
win two more Ballons d'Or, saying: "I want seven children and as many
Ballons d'Or. As long as I play, I'll have the ambition to win all I can.
"So, my dream is
the fifth Ballon d'Or. And, next year, there will be another one to look
for."
And at Thursday's award
ceremony, he said: "For Christmas, I want a new baby. I'm kidding, it's a
joke!"
2017 Ballon
d'Or rankings with club/country:
1: Cristiano Ronaldo
(Real Madrid/Portugal)
2: Lionel Messi
(Barcelona/Argentina)
3: Neymar (Barcelona,
Paris Saint-Germain/Brazil)
4: Gianluigi Buffon
(Juventus/Italy)
5: Luka Modric (Real
Madrid/Croatia)