The football world was moved to pay tribute to the Real Madrid ace.
As expected the 2013 Ballon d’Or award was presented to Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo on Monday night, ahead of four-time winner Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery.
It’s the second time the Portugal captain has lifted the gong after also triumphing in 2008 following the Champions League triumph with Manchester United.
Ronaldo scored an incredible 69 goals in just 60 appearances in 2013 for club and country and was credited with essentially single-handedly dragging the forward’s nation to the 2014 World Cup.
Portugal overcame Sweden in a two-legged play-off in which the 28-year-old scored four times – including an amazing hat-trick in the second leg.
Unsurprisingly after such an amazing achievement, a large amount of the footballing community have been moved to congratulate Ronaldo.
Congratulations to @Cristiano for winning the ballon d’or tonight! Well deserved. All 3 deserved it.
— Asmir Begovic (@asmir1) January 13, 2014
Congratulations to @Cristiano on 2nd Ballon d’Or !!! The guy is a machine, phenomenal and full deserved #BallondOr
— Michael Carrick (@carras16) January 13, 2014
‘Yet another glory day has arrived for you Cristiano!! I’m proud to enjoy football by your side!! Happy Ballon D’or!!’
‘Congratulations CR7 Well done #bestplayer.’
‘Congratulations Cristiano well deserved #bestplayer.’
Ronaldo rightly wins the Ballon d’Or. He had a truly outstanding 2013. Congratulations!
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 13, 2014
Messi had lifted the trophy for the past four years – the first time in the history of the award that it had ever happened – but despite winning La Liga with Barcelona in 2012/13, the Argentine was somewhat in the shadow of Ronaldo.
Ribery meanwhile was many peoples’ dark horse as although the France international did not have the same scoring record of the other two, the winger was the best player in a Bayern Munich side that won the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League last term.
Yet there are few that disagree with the result and after moving to Madrid four-and-a-half years ago for a then world record £80m, Ronaldo has been utterly prolific.
To date the attacker has an astonishing 230 goals in 223 appearances for the club and is already fifth on the all-time scorers list at the Santiago Bernabeu.
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