Ronaldo wins Ballon d´Or

Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo has won the FIFA Ballon d’Or following a stellar year for club and country.

Ronaldo scored an incredible 66 goals in 55 games for Real and Portugal throughout 2013, and has been rewarded ahead of Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery at Monday’s awards ceremony in Zurich.

The former Manchester United man was last recognised as the best player on the planet when he was awarded the now-defunct FIFA World Player of the Year in 2008.

Since then, Ronaldo has played second fiddle to Messi, with the Barcelona star winning the final World Player of the Year prize in 2009 before then reeling off three straight Ballons d’Or after FIFA and France Football merged their awards in 2010.

Messi had to settle for second place on the podium this time around, however, while Bayern Munich winger Ribery finished third.

Ronaldo, Messi and Ribery featured on an initial shortlist of 23 players, which was then narrowed down based on the votes of international managers, captains and a selection of journalists from around the world.