Following his Ballon d’Or victory, Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player 2016 at Zurich on 9th January 2017, making him the first winner of this new award. The Real Madrid player beat his contemporaries Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi for the win.
In a 23 candidate-vote, Ronaldo received 35.54% of the total votes while Messi and Griezmann received 26.42% and 7.53% respectively. According to CNN, Ronaldo was in awe at first and proudly stated, “2016 was the best year of my career” during his acceptance speech. The player went on to explain that his doubts were put to rest after he had won the trophy, “It was a year that was magnificent on a personal level, on a sports level. I would like to thank very warmly everybody who voted for me. To the fans, to the other players, to the media: Thank you.”
Earlier this year, he scored the winning penalty for Real Madrid during the Champions League final against Atletico Madrid and acquired his third Champions League title. The remarkable player scored a total of 51 points, 39 of which were for Real Madrid and 17 for Zinedine Zidane. Furthermore, he also helped Portugal win the Euro 2016.
