Ronaldo landed his fourth Balon D’or to close the gap on his perennial rival, Lionel Messi who has five to his name. The Barcelona star was expected to challenge his Real Madrid counterpart for the award this year but Ronaldo left him in his wake.
The Portuguese star got 745 points to Messi’s 316. Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann came in a distant third with 198 points. Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez finished in seventh place to make him the highest ranked English Premier League player on the list. The top six spots were all occupied by La Liga players. Jamie Vardy took to twitter to express his delight at finishing as high as eighth.
BALLON D’OR FINAL STANDINGS
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 745 points
2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 316 points
3. Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid) 198 points
4. Luis Suarez (Barcelona) 91 points
5. Neymar (Barcelona) 68 points
6. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) 60 points
7. Riyad Mahrez (Leicester) 20 points
8. Jamie Vardy (Leicester) 11 points
9. Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Pepe (Real Madrid) 8 points
11. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund) 7 points
12. Rui Patricio (Sporting Lisbon) 6 points
13. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United) 5 points
14. Paul Pogba (Manchester United), ArturoVidal (Bayern Munich) 4 points
16. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) 3 points
17. Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Luka Modric(Real Madrid), Dimitri Payet (West Ham) 1 point
Of France Football’s 30-man shortlist, 11 players received no votes. They were: Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Paulo Dybala, Diego Godin, Gonzalo Higuain, Andres Iniesta, Koke, Hugo Lloris, Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer and Sergio Ramos
