Despite all the financial headaches thrown up by Football Leaks, Portuguese ‘golden boy’ footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is back on top this week, with the announcement that he has won the coveted “Bola de Ouro” (Ballon d’Or/ Golden Ball) for the fourth time, making him 2016’s “best player in the world” and taking him once again into history. No Portuguese player has ever won this title so many times.
But Argentina’s ‘golden boy’ Lionel Messi has. Thus CR7 still has one more trophy to go, as elsewhere he and his lawyers will be working overtime on that issue of the ‘missing €150 million’ in income tax (click here).
If it wasn’t for Football Leaks, Ronaldo’s 2016 could hardly have been better: he has opened new hotels, taken Portugal to glory in the Euro, had an airport named after him and had endless press coverage for serenading beautiful women and helping sick children.
He told reporters as he received his new award: “I worked hard for this Golden Ball. I always want to be the best. When one wins a trophy like this, it is very important. You can count on your fingers the players who have achieved more than I have, and this fills me with pride”.
The votes for “France Football’s” Golden Ball saw CR7 clinch 745, against five-times winner Messi’s 316, and France’s Antoine Griezmann’s 198.
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