ZURICH - Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded the FIFA's player of the year award, which is his fourth, he topped his old rival Lionel Messi who was pulled out of the ceremony only a few hours earlier by his club Barcelona.
Italian Claudio Ranieri won the coach of the year award for leading rank outsiders Leicester City to the English Premier League title.
Ronaldo was rewarded for his performance in 2016 when he won the Champions League with his club Real Madrid and then Euro 2016 with Portugal. Five-times winner and four-times runner-up Messi was second and Frenchman Antoine Griezmann third.
Barcelona said that Wednesday's game against Athletic Bilbao would take priority over the ceremony and that none of their invited players would travel, which disappointed Ronaldo.
Ronaldo scored 42 goals for Real Madrid in 2016, plus 3 more for Portugal during their run to the Euro 2016 championship, and a further ten in World Cup qualifiers and international friendlies for his country. 48 goals in 1 year is an impressive feat that not a figure that many players can reach, and the fact that Ronaldo reached it during a time when many observers feel he’s starting to slow down is even more impressive.
U.S. Carli Lloyd won the women's player of the year award for the second year in a row.
Mohd Faiz Subri, of Malaysian Super League side Penang, won the goal of the year award for a 35-metre free kick in which the ball dipped and swung in a bewildering fashion to leave the goalkeeper stranded.
No comments:
Post a Comment