Cristiano Ronaldo secured his fourth Ballon d’Or title Monday, December 12, 2016. beating old rival Lionel Messi to the title of world’s best footballer over the past 12 months.
It capped a successful 2016 for Ronaldo, who captained Portugal to its first major international honor at the European Championships in France.
He also scored the winning penalty as Real Madrid defeated city rival Atletico Madrid to win the UEFA Champions League for the second time in three seasons in May.
Ronaldo has now won just one less Ballon d’Or than 2015 winner Messi, whose Barcelona team beat Real Madrid to the Spanish La Liga title by one point.
Messi missed out on his first international title when Argentina lost to Chile in June’s Copa America final — he said that would be his last game for his country, but reversed that decision in August.
Ronaldo was unable to attend the awards ceremony in Paris as Real Madrid had traveled to Japan to take part in the FIFA Club World Cup, holding a six-point lead over Barca in La Liga after Saturday’s win over Deportivo La Coruna.
Although the 31-year-old had to leave the field after just 25 minutes of the Euro 2016 final against host nation France due to injury, his three goals and three assists had helped drag Portugal to the latter stages of the tournament.
It only qualified for the knockout rounds as one of the best third-placed group teams, drawing with Iceland, Austria and Hungary.
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