The award is an amalgam of the previous Fifa World Player of the Year and France Football's Ballon d'Or and, as such, the methodology to decide the winner is a hybrid of previous prizes. The captains and coaches of national
Cristiano Ronaldo won his third Ballon d'Or award Monday in Zurich. Ronaldo edged out his longtime rival Lionel Messi by a fairly significant margin — 38 percent to 16 percent. German keeper Manuel Neuer finished third.
REAL MADRID and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo has won the FIFA Ballon d'Or award for 2014.
Klinsmann, who was runner-up for the Ballon d'Or to Liberia's George Weah as a player in 1995 and was on FIFA's 10-man shortlist for 2014 Coach of the Year, voted for countryman Manuel Neuer, Ronaldo and Netherlands' Arjen Robben, respectively,
Cristiano Ronaldo has been awarded his third and least unexpected Ballon d'Or, with a year of individual overachievement that included 56 goals for Real Madrid earning him more than twice as many votes as Lionel Messi, his one-time Ballon-hogging