The key facts
- Ronaldo won the 'Golden Ball of All Time' category in a vote on the award's website
- His 2008 trophy beat the Golden Balls of Messi and Torres
- The selection criterion was the season for which the trophy was awarded, not the total number of awards
Victory in the fan vote
Al-Nassr striker Cristiano Ronaldo has won the 'Golden Ball of All Time' ranking. The information was published on the award's official website. Fans were choosing the best Golden Ball ever awarded, and the Portuguese's trophy, received in 2008, took first place, beating the awards of Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Liverpool's Fernando Torres (reports Gazeta.Ru).
How the choice was made
The organizers explained in advance that the key criterion in this category is not the total number of Golden Balls won — Messi has the most, eight — but the player's performance in the season for which he received the trophy. This explains why the winner was a holder of five awards rather than the record holder for the overall total: the vote assessed the specific 2008 season, not the entire career.
Context: the last World Cup
Ronaldo remains the world record holder for goals and matches for his national team — 146 goals in 233 official appearances. At the recent World Cup, Portugal lost to Spain 0:1 in the round of 16, and Ronaldo had said before that match that this tournament would be his last. Thus the forward, who has five Champions League titles, two Nations League titles, a European championship title and five Golden Balls, never became a world champion; Portugal's best World Cup result is fourth place in 2006, when Ronaldo was already playing for the national team. Also, it was previously reportedwhether he made the national team squad for the November matches.
