Cristiano Ronaldo has beaten off competition from the likes of Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann to claim his fourth Ballon d’Or.
The prolific Portuguese, who previously lifted the prestigious prize in 2008, 2013 and 2014, has enjoyed arguably the most successful year of his illustrious career, winning the Champions League with Real Madrid before captaining his country to European Championship glory in France.
The 31-year-old is now one behind Barcelona’s Messi, who took the honour for a fifth time last year.
Atletico Madrid’s French forward Antoine Griezmann finished third in the vote.
Ronaldo’s 2016 in numbers
Club:
- 42 games, 38 goals, 14 assists
- Third best minutes-per-goal rate – 83.68 – of anyone scoring a minimum of 10 goals across Europe’s top five leagues during 2016, behind Luis Suarez (82.57) and Falcao (59.6)
- Directly involved in 39 La Liga goals in 30 games – 31 scored and nine assists.
International:
Appearances – 13
Goals – 13
Assists – 3
Trophies – Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, Euro 2016
BALLON D’OR FINAL STANDINGS
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 745 points
2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 316 points
3. Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid) 198 points
4. Luis Suarez (Barcelona) 91 points
5. Neymar (Barcelona) 68 points
6. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) 60 points
7. Riyad Mahrez (Leicester) 20 points
8. Jamie Vardy (Leicester) 11 points
9. Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Pepe (Real Madrid) 8 points
11. Pierre–Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund) 7 points
12. Rui Patricio (Sporting Lisbon) 6 points
13. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United) 5 points
14. Paul Pogba (Manchester United), Arturo Vidal (Bayern Munich) 4 points
16. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) 3 points
17. Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Dimitri Payet (West Ham) 1 point
