Ronaldo wins Ballon d’Or Trophy

December 2, 2008

Manchester united winger Cristiano Ronaldo has beaten a whole host of football superstars to pick up the Ballon d’Or trophy awarded by France Football magazine.

Ronaldo had a sensational season last year winning bothe the league and Champions league with Manchester united scoring 42 goals along the way.

“It is one of the most beautiful days of my life, something I dreamed of as a child,” said the 23-year-old winger.

Lionel Messi came second and Fernando Torres came 3rd witrh both having impressive seasons themselves but Ronaldo was far and above the best player last year.

“Great emotion fills me but I cannot really describe it,” Ronaldo continued.

“I was not worried, because I was aware of what I did in the course of the season.

“But to the people who mentioned my name, I say thank you. Thank you also to my team-mates.

“This (trophy) is one that I want to win again because it is so good.

“Therefore, I will wake and I will say to myself ‘I want to be even better’.”

The Portuguese international became only the fifth player to score more than 30 goals in a Premier League season as United pipped Chelsea to the domestic title.

Ronaldo’s tally of 42 goals earned him the Golden Shoe as Europe’s top scorer, making him the first winger to collect that honour.

2008 Ballon d’Or voting

1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester Utd) 446 points
2 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 281 pts
3 Fernando Torres (Liverpool) 179 pts
4 Iker Casillas (Real Madrid) 133 pts
5 Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona) 97 pts
6 Andriy Arshavin (Zenit St-Petersburg) 64 pts
7 David Villa (Valencia) 55 pts
8 Kaka (AC Milan) 31 pts
9 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan) 30 pts
10 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) 28 pts
11 Marcos Senna (Villarreal) 16 pts
12 Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) 12 pts
13 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) 11 pts
14 Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid) 10 pts
15 Frank Lampard (Chelsea) 8 pts
16 Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich) 7 pts
17 Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona) 6 pts
18 Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus) 5 pts
19 Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal) 4 pts
21 Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United) 3 pts
24 Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), 2 pts