European honour for Ronaldinho

Barcelona playmaker Ronaldinho has been named the 2005 European Footballer of the Year.

The Brazilian edged out English duo Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard to win the 50th edition of France Football magazine’s prestigious Ballon D’Or award at a gala ceremony in Paris tonight.

Ronaldinho, named FIFA World Player of the Year in December, finished third in the running in 2004 behind winner Andriy Shevchenko of AC Milan and his Barcelona team-mate Deco.

The 25-year-old becomes the fifth Barca player to pick up the award, which is voted for by European football journalists, since Blackpool’s Stanley Matthews won the inaugural Ballon D’Or in 1956.

Luis Suarez was the first Barca player to achieve the feat in 1960 before Johan Cruyff picked up back-to-back awards in 1973 and 1974.

Hristo Stoichkov was the next Barca star to win the title in 1994 and Ronaldinho’s compatriot Rivaldo also claimed the honour in 1999 – four years after it was opened up to non-European players.

Ronaldinho was instrumental in Barcelona clinching their first Primera Liga title since 1999 last season, scoring nine goals and providing many more.

He is in arguably even better form at the start of this term, a penalty in Sunday’s win over Racing Santander seeing him match last year’s entire league haul after just 12 games.

His performance in Barcelona’s 3-0 win at bitter rivals Real Madrid little over a week ago earned the player a standing ovation from members of the Bernabeu crowd, an honour only previously bestowed on a Barca player when Argentina legend Diego Maradona played there in the 1980s.

Ronaldinho has been equally impressive in Europe, scoring five goals in Barca’s five Champions League games so far to help them progress easily to the knockout stages.

His tally already betters the four Champions League goals he scored last season, when Barca were beaten by eventual Premiership champions Chelsea in the quarter-finals.

Brazil have also seen the best of Ronaldinho this year.

He was a key figure in the world champions topping the South American qualifying group, and was the campaign’s top scorer with 10 goals.

He also netted three times in five games in this summer’s Confederations Cup win in Germany, including once in the 4-1 final victory over Argentina, where his stunning all-round display earned him the man-of-the-match award.