Cristiano Ronaldo is World Player of the Year
12 January 09 by Bill
Cristiano Ronaldo has been crowned the Fifa World Player of the Year to round off an incredible 12 months for the Portuguese winger.
Ronaldo won both the Premier League and the Champions League with Manchester United last season scoring an impressive 42 goals along the way. He is also the first Premier League player to lift the award in it’s 18 year history.
The newly crowned World Player of the Year has dominated at the award ceremonies of late and has taken a clean sweep of all the major individual awards; he has already won the Football Writers’ Player of the Year award, the PFA Player of the Year award, the Golden Boot, the Ballon d’Or and the FifPro World Player of the Year award.
“It is an overwhelming moment for me, a very special moment,” Ronaldo said in an emotional acceptance speech. “I would like to say to my mother and my sister; you can set off the fireworks now. I want to thank my friends, my family and my teammates. This is one of the most important moments of my life. I hope I can come back.”
The award, which was presented by footballing legend Pele, is decided by the votes of international captains and coaches. Ronaldo received 935 votes ahead of second-place Lionel Messi, with 678 and Fernando Torres finished third with 203.
Ronaldo was also keen to highlight the importance of Sir Alex Ferguson as a factor which contributed to his amazing success. He said: “Sir Alex has had an important role to play in my life. Last season was a great one from me, my club, and the bus was important to me because I learned a lot from him. His immense experience, after so many years, is of paramount importance and to me it’s a privilege to be able to be part of the history of such a big club as United. Without Sir Alex and Luiz Felipe Scolari I wouldn’t be here today.”
England manager Fabio Capello voted for Ronaldo to win with Messi second and Torres third; a popular vote appears. England captain John Terry however, thought Xavi was the best player in the world with Torres in second and Ronaldo third. Sour grapes anyone?
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Ronaldo is my favoriate football player. The guy is very luck last year, even a car crash can NOT do any harm to him.
Whatever, he is a talent football player. Congratulations!
Well deserved. He really was the best in 2008. All of the recent talk of Messi’s greatness is warranted but can only apply to 2009.
So who is the best so far for 2009?
~ Vote at bestplayerintheworld.com ~