Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon d’Or for a fifth time in his career, which moves him level with great rival Lionel Messi. The Los Blancos star was named the winner of France Football’s prestigious award at a ceremony in Paris on Thursday.
The award caps a brilliant year for both Ronaldo personally and Real Madrid as a whole. The side has won La Liga, the Champions League and the Spanish Super Cup in 2017, and Ronaldo also performed well for his country at international level, helping Portugal qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
Cristiano’s exploits in the Champions League went a long way to earning him the award, as he scored 19 goals in 13 games in the competition across the entirety of 2017. With this award, it now means that for the last 10 years, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the only two players to win the award, cementing their dominance as the two best players on the planet.
Ronaldo’s Recent Domination
In recent years, it is Ronaldo that has dominated though, claiming the award for four of the last five years. After being named as the winner for 2017, Ronaldo labelled himself the most “complete player” in the world. He told France Football:
“I don’t see anyone better than me,”
No player does things that I cannot do myself, but I see things others can’t do.
There’s no more complete player than me. I’m the best player in history — in the good and the bad moments.”
Many ex-Real players have won the award over the years, whether they were in Madrid at the time or not. Here is the full list of winners from the last 17 years:
2000 Luis Figo
2001 Michael Owen
2002 Ronaldo
2003 Pavel Nedved
2004 Andriy Shevchenko
2005 Ronaldinho
2006 Fabio Cannavaro
2007 Kaka
2008 Cristiano Ronaldo
2009 Lionel Messi
2010 Lionel Messi
2011 Lionel Messi
2012 Lionel Messi
2013 Cristiano Ronaldo
2014 Cristiano Ronaldo
2015 Lionel Messi
2016 Cristiano Ronaldo
2017 Cristiano Ronaldo
