[ 2014-01-14 ]

Cristiano Ronaldo wins Ballon d'Or 2013
Cristiano Ronaldo has been awarded the Ballon
d’Or award for 2013, beating rivals Lionel Messi
and Franck Ribery to football’s top individual
prize.

The Real Madrid star enjoyed a career-best 2013,
scoring 66 goals and providing 15 assists in 56
games across the course of the calendar year.

The 28-year-old’s prodigious output had been
bettered by Barca superstar Lionel Messi in the
previous four match-ups between the pairing, but
the Madrid star was a cut above in 2013.

He single-handedly dragged Portugal to the World
Cup, and was the main man yet again for Real
Madrid.

That was more than enough to hand Ronaldo the
prestigious title for the second time in his
career, after he scooped the award in 2008.

Since then, Messi has won four – but after a
season disrupted by injury, many felt Ronaldo’s
toughest challenge would come from Bayern Munich
winger Franck Ribery.

The France international was the star player as
Bayern won the Champions League, Bundesliga and
the German Cup in a magnificent campaign.

Ribery chipped in with 22 goals and 18 assists,
but his candidacy was less about sheer weight of
numbers.

Many believed Ribery’s importance to such a
dominant club side gave him a realistic shout of
bagging the award – in a similar manner to how
Fabio Cannavaro won the prize in 2006.

But Ronaldo could not be stopped in 2013, and he
could not be stopped here.

More interesting though, will be next year’s
award when a World Cup cycle comes into play.

But for the next 12 months, Ronaldo can rightly
call himself the best player in the world. And you
cannot say that is not deserved.

Source - Ghanasoccer

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