For five years he waited for the opportunity to relish this new status as the world’s best footballer. Those years, he walked in the shadows of his greatest rival, Lionel Messi who kept him at bay wining the coveted Ballon D’Or four straight years.
The controversies and anger trailed each edition as he kept watching among the guests and being a nominee as he played second fiddle to the little magician from Argentina.
But, honor come to him last Monday, January 13, 2014 as Portugal’s forward and Real Madrid star, Cristiano Ronaldo was voted and honored the world’s best footballer.
It was an emotional moment for the Portuguese when called to the podium to receive the FIFA Ballon D’Or golden ball.
“Thank you to everyone, my team mates, the national team and my family, to everyone here. Eusebio and Mandela were very important to me, I can’t speak,” an emotional Ronaldo said at the awards ceremony which was held at the Kongreshans in Zurich, Switzerland.
His emotions were deeply felt across the globe with thousands of tweets making instant hits to share the honour with him.
Ronaldo never let the moment of glory pass him by as he made the best of a memorable night with his family beside.
He kept his time over the years, occasionally expressing his disgust at being made to play second fiddle to Lionel Messi.
His former club manager at Real Madrid, Joe Mourinho now at Chelsea football club had sometime last year described him as the best, a signature tune designed to build the confidence of the striker for the team.
Ronaldo never let his fans down. He kept churning out fantastic displays, scoring vital goals with his dazzling skills. He single handedly ensured the qualification of Portugal for the Brazil 2014 World Cup as Portugal edged out Sweden led by another rival Zlanta Ibrahimmovic to reach the final.
It will be recalled that Ronaldo scored all three goals against Sweden in the second leg play-off while Ibrahimmovic replied with two goals.
Such precision has made Ronaldo the obvious choice in the last one year to grab this award which comes in his career for the second time.
Ronaldo polled 1,365 points to beat Messi to the second spot. The Argentine got 1,205 points while Frank Ribery of Bayern Munich and France got 1,127 points to settle for the third place in the Ballon D’Or list.
Ronaldo, despite the fact had a strong rivalry all season with Lionel Messi setting the El Classico alight has scored 20 La Liga goals this season and has scored a record nine times in the champions’ league group stage.
Indeed, Ronaldo reigns, his greatest critics especially UEFA President, Michel Platini tried to play down on Ronaldo’s success that great night.
Platini and Ronaldo in a run up to the Ballon D’Or have shared a cold war in various exchanges on the choice of the winner for the prestigious award.
For Platini, a Frenchman, who felt that Frank Ribery should have won the award when you consider his various awards he achieved last season including the European Footballer of the year and champions league status.
He was quoted to have expressed concern that he felt individual awards should have been the criteria for last year’s pick.
If we go by that statement, then I personally feel that Mikel should have won the recently awarded CAF African Footballer of the year.
Platini’s comments have been largely pushed to the background as the world celebrates Ronaldo and his deserved status.
Perhaps more interesting than the actual Ballon D’Or award itself is the release of the full list of who voted for who, which more often than not makes for some interesting reading.
Unsurprisingly, whether winner Cristiano Ronaldo nor his rival Lionel Messi voted for each other, in an attempt to give themselves the best chance of winning the sought after award.
According to reports, Messi decided that the best approach was to keep things sweet at his club, Barcelona. All three of his nominations were teammates of his with Messi opting to vote Andres Iniesta as winner, followed by Xavi Hernandez and summer signing Neymar.
Ronaldo on the other hand chose just one club mate. He nominated former colleague Mesout Ozil. His first choice was as Monaco striker Radamel Falcao, while Gareth Bale was second.
Ronaldo was also named into the FIFA team of the year along with Andreas Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva among other football stars.
What makes the awards more exciting is the fact that the world cup is just less than six months away and with the expectations of fans across the globe of the expected rivalry between both stars to be renewed barring any unforeseen injuries, the showdown in Brazil may just be the decider of who will retain or reclaim his crown after the mundial.
The build up to the world cup matches ahead will lay the perfect platform as soccer pundits analyze these great stars of who will take the shine at the world cup.
The former Manchester United star, who scored 66 goals in 56 games last year has obviously set his sights for more laurels.
The recent Ballon D’Or award is likely to take his pride of place in his new Museum.
At last month’s opening in his hometown of Funchal, Ronaldo told Reporters “I have room for more trophies. I don’t want to really mention specific ones. All I want is to win more awards and if the Ballon D’or comes, there is extra room here”.
His love for Manchester United remains as strong as he admitted that he considered returning to the club in the summer.
Ronaldo, a man of style and swagger and a ladies delight holds the ace at the moment and the feel of the joy of this award remains well deserved.
Expect more awards from this phenomenon. He truly reigns.
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