Tears flow as Ronaldo takes crown

An emotional Cristiano Ronaldo had to fight back the tears last night after ending four years of Lionel Messi domination to win the Fifa Ballon d’Or and the right to be called the best player on the planet once again.

Ronaldo has won the award once before, back in 2008 while at Manchester United, but since then he has had to play second fiddle to Messi in the voting, finishing runner-up three times as the Argentinian claimed the crown on four successive occasions.

That is despite the Portugal international putting up incredible figures for Real Madrid — he has scored 231 goals in 222 games for the Spanish giants — which at any other time would surely have been enough to win a host of gongs, as Messi has.