By Chris Wright
And, yay, the Gods/FIFA have (finally) spoken: Cristiano Ronaldo is the recipient of the 2014 Ballon d’Or – his third such trinket…
According to the official figures, Ronaldo won with a massive 37.66% of all votes, that’s compared to Messi’s 15.76% and Neuer’s 15.72%.
Ronaldo also made this noise on winning, which was a little bit unsettling at best…
O…kay.
You feel this may be the closest Neuer will ever come to winning a much-deserved Ballon, but as we’ve said before: it’s a lot more difficult to put the ball into the back of the net than it is to keep it out.
If you were wondering who England manager Roy Hodgson voted as his best player in the world last year then wonder no more…it was Javier Mascherano.
Elsewhere, Jogi Loew won Coach of the Year (unsurprising given the World Cup and everything) with James Rodriguez winning the Puskas Award for goal of the year – pipping Robin van Persie and people’s champion Stephanie Roche with his scorcher against Uruguay over the summer…
As for the Women’s World Player of the Year award, that honour went to Nadine Kessler of Wolfsburg and Germany.