Welcome to the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony, where everyone is awkwardly polite and refuses to admit that they think they’re better than their colleagues. Hopefully Zlatan Ibrahimović wins something so he can get on stage and talk about how great he is.
Ballon d’Or 2014 results: Cristiano Ronaldo wins player of the year
There are a lot of awards handed out by FIFA before the best player of 2014 is named. We’ll update all of them here.
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The ceremony gets underway at 6:30 p.m. local time, 12:30 p.m. ET in Zurich, Switzerland, not too far from the home of FIFA. There are a whole host of awards to get through, so it'll be a while before they get to the big men's individual award that everyone's been fighting over for the past few months.
You can catch the ceremony on TV or streaming online just about anywhere. It's on FIFA.com in most of the world, but unfortunately, not in the United States. If you're in the USA, you can flip on FOX Sports 2 or catch it online at FOX Sports Go or FOX Soccer 2 Go. For listings from other countries, check out Live Soccer TV.
Results
Ballon d’Or
As expected, Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has captured football's highest individual honor again. Even though he struggled at the World Cup on a Portugal team that failed to get out of the group stage, his club achievements were enough to help him overcome Manuel Neuer and Lionel Messi. Ronaldo scored 51 goals in 47 appearances last season and has 33 in 28 matches so far this season. Had Neuer won, he would have been the first goalkeeper to do so since 1963.
Women’s Player of the Year
Nadine Kessler of VfL Wolfsburg won the award, and rightfully so after a pretty dominant season. She was arguably the top player on Wolfsburg's Bundesliga and Champions League-winning team, and also played for a Germany side that finished on top of their World Cup group. Like her manager Ralf Kellermann, she noted that she struggled to find the words for what she wanted to say after the death of Wolfsburg player Junior Malanda over the weekend.
Puskás Goal of the Year Award
James Rodriguez took the award for his spectacular volley against Uruguay at the World Cup. Decent hit, this.
FIFPro World XI
Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich/Germany)
Defense: Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich/Germany)
Defense: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid/Spain)
Defense: David Luiz (Chelsea/PSG/Brazil)
Defense: Thiago Silva (PSG/Brazil)
Midfield: Andres Iniesta (Barcelona/Spain)
Midfield: Toni Kroos (Real Madrid/Bayern Munich/Germany)
Midfield: Angel Di Maria (Manchester United/Real Madrid/Argentina)
Forward: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)
Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)
Forward: Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich/Netherlands)
Women’s Football Coach of the Year
Ralf Kellermann of VfL Wolfsburg was handed the award after a spectacular season. The German club won both the 2013-14 Frauen-Bundesliga and the 2013-14 UEFA Women’s Champions League. Kellermann noted that he did not want to give a long speech about his or the club’s accomplishments following the death of Malanda from injuries suffered in an auto accident.
Men’s Football Coach of the Year
Germany manager Joachim Löw was given the award for lifting the World Cup, beating out Champions League winner Carlo Ancelotti of Real Madrid and Diego Simeone of Atlético Madrid, who won La Liga and guided his team to the Champions League final. He credited his country’s entire federation and organization for creating an environment that produced so many great German players.
FIFA Fair Play Award
Instead of picking someone to award this to, FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke gave the award to all of the volunteers at FIFA tournaments. He said that the tournaments would not be possible without them. You could always pay them, Jerome.
FIFA Presidential award
Sepp Blatter handed out this award to Japanese journalist and former player Hiroshi Kagawa. The 90-year-old writer has been covering football since 1974. He was the oldest credentialed reporter at the 2014 World Cup, which was his 10th.
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