The Best FIFA Men's Player Award winner Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Real Madrid looks on during The Best FIFA Football Awards 2016 on January 9, 2017 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo : Getty Images/Philipp Schmidli)
Cristiano Ronaldo has arguably passed Leo Messi as the greatest active footballer in the world. He recently solidified his hold of the top by adding another precious hardware to his rising collection by winning "The Best FIFA Men's Player 2016" award.
There had been doubts about the capabilities of Ronaldo before he shut down critics by winning his fourth Ballon d'Or award in 2016 at the expense of football rival Messi. This year, Ronaldo garnered 34.54 percent of the total vote to surpass Messi, who had 26.42 percent of the votes, and Antoine Griezmann who totalled 7.53 percent, CNN reported.
Ronaldo said in his speech that 2016 had been the best year of his stellar career and receiving the trophy erased all the doubts he had in himself. Despite losing the La Liga title to Messi's Barcelona, he towed Portugal over France for his first major championship for his country in the UEFA Euro 2016. He also secured his third European title by carrying Real Madrid over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League finale.
The Portugal captain, however, paid homage and voted for his Real Madrid teammates Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Sergio Ramos, Mirror reported. Messi, meanwhile, voted for Barcelona teammates Luis Suarez, Neymar and Andres Iniesta.
United States Carli Lloyd won the Best FIFA Women's Player plum while Claudio Ranieri of Leicester City and Silvia Neid of Germany were picked as the Best FIFA Men's and Women's Coaches, respectively. Atletico Nacional of Colombia went home with the FIFA Fair Play award while the Best FIFA Fans plum were awarded to Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.
Mohd Faiz Subri became the first Malaysian to be nominated and to win the FIFA Puskas Award for the best goal of 2016. Brazil's Falcao, on the other hand, was given the The FIFA Award For An Outstanding Career. Aside from Ronaldo, Messi, Suarez, Iniesta, Ramos and Modric, Manuel Neuer, Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Marcelo and Toni Kroos were included in the FIFA FIFPro World XI.
Watch the video below for Ronaldo's speech:
