Cristiano Ronaldo has been named The Best FIFA men’s player of the year for 2016, giving the Real Madrid star yet another honor to a trophy cabinet that started to overflow with them over the course of the last year. Last year saw Ronaldo win the Ballon d’Or — no longer FIFA’s top award, but still handed out to the top European player by the France Football publication — earn a spot in FIFPro’s World XI squad, and even earn a place in UEFA’s All-Time Euro XI before helping Portugal win Euro 2016.
Cristiano Ronaldo wins The Best FIFA men’s player for the fourth time
2016 was a very good year for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Photo by Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images
Ronaldo scored 42 goals for Real Madrid in 2016, plus three 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. That 48-goal total is incredibly impressive and 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.
But in many ways 2016 was about a year of change and growth for Ronaldo, a year where we saw him become more of a leader and a guide for those around him instead of just being the all-powerful superstar on the field. Just where this continuing evolution of one of the best all-time players in the game winds up is a mystery, but you can be assured that he’s never going to quit striving to be the best player he can be.
And as long as he keeps scoring fantastic goals, we’ll keep watching.
See More:
