Portuguese skipper and Real Madrid attacker Christiano Ronaldo has been voted 2014 World Player of the Year beating a challenge from Germany's Manuel Neuer and Argentine's Lionel Messi.

Christiano garnered a whopping 37.66% of all votes ahead of Lionel Messi who polled 15.76% with Manuel Neuer polling 15.72%.

It is the third such accolade for the Portuguese, the second in two years.

The honour, announced at a short, yet exciting Ballon d'Or ceremony held in Zurich, Switzerland, Monday night,  crowns what has been a thoroughly successful year for the talismanic Real Madrid figure who scored 17 Champions league goals, breaking an existing record of 14 goals set by Lionel Messi in 2012.

Prior to the gala, Manuel Neuer had been given a fighting chance with some pundits tipping him to break the duopoly between Ronaldo and Messi.

He had quite an amazing season, winning the World Cup, Bundusliga and other German titles.

But  when the chips were down, captains and national team coaches as well as as selected journalists in FIFA accredited countries stuck to the convention picking the two players and indeed Ronaldo ahead of Neuer.

The goal machine as he is referred to by his Coach Carlo Ancelotti, has already scored over 20 goals in the opening 15 games in La Liga an impressive 1.7% goal scoring rate per game.

Apart from winning the Champions League trophy in the year under review, Ronaldo also won the Copa Del Rey even if  he was absent in the final against Barcelona due to injury.

He was also La Liga's top scorer with 31 goals and joint top scorer in Europe together with Luis Suarez then with Liverpool

Ronaldo was also part of the classy Real Madrid team which won the World Club trophy later last year.

He had been voted European Footballer of the Year, La Liga player of the year and La Liga attacker of the year. 

"The fact is, if I think back to the first time I was invited to this ceremony, I’d never have imagined this scene being repeated so many times. Every time I come back it feels great. All those achievements are starting to feel even more special now that my son Cristiano understands what’s going on and knows why I’m here” Christiano Ronaldo said during his coronation.

On the night, Germany's Nadine Kessler  also picked up the Women's 2014 Ballon d'Or beating five time winner Marta and Abby Wambach of the USA.

Kessler made her debut for the Germany women's national football team at Algarve Cup on 26 February 2010 against Finland and has since made huge impact not only for her coountry but her club Wolfsburg.

for the FIFA Fifpro World XI Award 2014, Manuel Neuer, Ramos  Sergio, Philip Lahm, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Toni Kroos, Angel Di Maria, Andres Iniesta, Arjen Robben Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi made the cut.

 

 

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