Cristiano Ronaldo has won three Ballon d’Or trophies and is chasing Messi’s record of four wins.
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The Ballon d’Or has been dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi over the past seven years, with the Real Madrid man bagging the trophy three times and the Argentine taking the award home on four occasions.
Taking into consideration their performances for club and country this year, Ronaldo has scored more goals than his Barcelona adversaries, with his tally of 48 goals beating Messi’s 44, Neymar’s 42 and Suarez’s 43 in 2015.
It’s the eighth year in a row that Barcelona’s Messi and Ronaldo of Real Madrid have been shortlisted for the gong – formerly the FIFA World Player of the Year award. “We’ll have a good time”, Messi said at the La Liga awards on Monday night, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
The victor of the 2015 Golden Ball as well as the other winners in other categories will be announced at the FIFA Gala, to be held on January 11, 2016.
Neymar too echoed Messi’s sentiment saying that Suarez also needs to have been on the ultimate three for the Ballon d’Or.
Goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, forward Neymar and head coach Luis Enrique also claimed prizes at the ceremony.
“Being nominated for Ballon d’Or means a lot”.
FIFA World Player: Carli Lloyd (USA / Houston Dash), Aya Miyama (JAP / Yunogo Okayama Belle) and Celia Sasic (ALE / FFC Frankfurt).
Messi’s mazy effort against Athletic Bilbao is included as is Alessandro Florenzi’s spectacular effort for AS Roma against Barcelona, with Brazil striker Wendell Lira’s acrobatic overhead kick for club side Goianesia rounding off the list.
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And Jill Ellis (USA/USA national team), Mark Sampson (Wales/English national team) and Norio Sasaki (Japan/Japanese national team) are the final trio to battle it out for the Fifa World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football award.
