Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid and Portugal has pipped his rival, Lionel Messi to win the 2016 Ballon d’Or.
The award, which was presented in Paris on Monday night, is Ronaldo’s fourth.
Now separated from FIFA and back with France Football magazine, the award is voted by nearly 200 top journalists around the world.
Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or after a year in which he enjoyed victory at Euro 2016 for Portugal and also scored the decisive goal for his club to win the Champions League.
Ronaldo overwhelmingly won with 53 per cent of the votes.
He edged out a mix of players that included rival, Lionel Messi and Barelona’s striker Luis Suarez. Messi got 16 per cent of the votes, while Ronaldo’s team mate Gareth Bale got 6 per cent. Luis Suarez got 9 per cent. Antoine Griezmann had just 5 per cent.
The players in contention were Sergio Aguero (Manchester City), Gareth Bale (Real Madrid), Gianluigi Buffon(Juventus), Kevin de Bruyne(Manchester City), Paulo Dybala(Juventus)
Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus), Andres Iniesta(Barcelona), Koke (Atletico Madrid)
Hugo Lloris (Tottenham Hotspur), Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich)
Neymar (Barcelona), Pepe (Real Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City).
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