Cristiano Ranaldo awarded FIFA Ballon d’Or award 2013

Cristiano Ranaldo awarded FIFA Ballon d’Or award 2013

>> Cristiano Ronaldo ended the four-year dominance of Lionel Messi when he was awarded the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or in Zurich on 13 January 2014 (Monday).

>> The 28-year-old Real Madrid and Portugal star, who won the award in 2008 overtook Barcelona's Messi and France winger Franck Ribery to get the award.

>> Ronaldo won with 27.99% of the votes ahead of Messi (24.72%) while Ribery was third (23.36%) according to France Football, co-organisers of the award with FIFA.

>> Ronaldo scored 66 goals for Real Madrid and Portugal in 2013 and his hat trick against Sweden in a decisiveWorld Cup playoff was perhaps the defining individual performance.

>> Ronaldo, who was widely expected to win after news spread on social media earlier in the day that seven members of his family were joining him in Zurich and his club Real were transmitting the award ceremony live on their official television channel in a change to theprogrammed schedule, broke down in tears on stage during his victory speech.

>> Ribery, who won the Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup with Bayern last season, before adding the European Supercup and Club World Cup before the turn of the year, had been the early front-runner.

>> With 66 goals in his 56 matches this year -- more than Messi and Ribery's combined 65 -- no-one could deny Ronaldo was a worthy winner.

>> It is the second time he has picked up the award and comes in a season in which he won nothing with either club or country, an unusual situation for a Ballon d'Or winner.

>> From its inception in 1956 until 2010, the Ballon d'Or was awarded to the best player in Europe and the FIFA World Player of the Year award was only inaugurated in 1991, before ending in 2009 when it was assimilated into the Ballon d'Or.

>> Zlatan Ibrahimovic won the Ferenc Puskas best goal award for his stunning, acrobatic overhead kick from 40 yards for Sweden in a friendly against England.

>> Former IOC president Jacques Rogge was given the president's prize for a "remarkable personality in sport".

>> In the team of the year, Bayern's goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, full-back and captain Philipp Lahm and Ribery were joined by Barcelona's right-back Dani Alves, midfielders Andres Iniesta and Xavi and Messi, as well as Ronaldo and his Real team-mate centre-back Sergio Ramos, and Paris Saint-Germain pair Ibrahimovic and centre-back Thiago Silva