Cristiano Ronaldo Retains 2014 Ballon d’Or Award

Former Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo retained his Ballon d’Or award, after receiving a tough competition from Barcelona star Lionel Messi and Bayerin Munich goal keeper Manuel Neuer.

Ronaldo clinched the award after securing 37.66 percent of votes.

“"I would like to thank all of those who voted for me," said the 29-year-old, who struggled to fight back tears as he accepted the trophy.

"It has been an incredible year. I would like to continue the work that I have done so far. I want to try to improve with every day in my life.”

"I never thought that I would bring this trophy back home on three occasions and I want to win it again. I want to become one of the greatest players of all time."


Barcelona star Lionel Messi came at 2nd spot after securing 15.76 percent of votes, a little more than that of Manuel Neuer’s 15.72 percent of votes.

The Portugese forward played a huge role in making Real Madrid 10 times champion of Champions League, after thrashing Bayern Munich in semis and Atletico Madrid in crucial finals.

He is the leading scorer in La Liga 2014-15 season with 26 goals already to his name and helping Real Madrid to claim first spot at around half of the season with 42 points and still a game in hand just followed by 41 points of Barcelona.

Portuguese star has also netted 51 goals in 47 appearances last season, including his 17 astonishing goals in Champions League.

Since then, he played a vital role in Real Madrid’s victory of Club World Cup and has scored stunning 26 goals in 17 La Liga matches and looks set to smash the biggest total for a season in Spain's top spot of 50 scored by Messi in 2011-12.

All that was enough to leave behind the disappointment of World Cup where Portugal went out in the first round and Ronaldo mustered only one goal.

However, he still became Portugal's all-time leading scorer and took his goal count to 52 in 117 appearances.

Messi, by contrast, inspired Argentina as they reached the World Cup final, where they lost to Neuer's Germany.

The final statistics was surprising as a tough competition was expected between two stars of their style, but Ronaldo’s margin of votes completely outplayed Messi from the competition.

Messi won the Ballon d’Or award four years in a row from 2009 to 2012, with Ronaldo finishing second on three occasions.
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