The end of the calendar year is not far away with 2016 being an eventful year for the footballing world. Leicester City miraculously won the Premier League while Real Madrid won their eleventh Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo had a perfect year in which he won the Euros with Portugal, Champions League with Real and was awarded this year's Ballon d'Or for his achievements throughout the calendar year.
In a recent poll conducted in Brazil, Cristiano Ronaldo has emerged victorious as the player of 2016 ahead of the likes of Lionel Messi and especially Brazil's superstar, Neymar Jr.
A Brazilian website UOL conducted a poll in which they asked 118 players playing in the Brazilian league to vote for the player they think was the best this year. The Portuguese forward won this prize rather one-sided as he received the majority of votes ahead of the homegrown star, Neymar which has been a surprising result.
The top seven footballers who were in the running for player of 2016 decided by the Brasileirao players were Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Mesut Ozil, Gareth Bale, Antoine Griezmann and Xabi Alonso.
Ronaldo won the best Brazilian player of 2016 award with a staggering 56.77% of the votes with his closest competitor being Lionel Messi with 31.35% of the votes. Neymar came in third in the standings after receiving 8.47% of the votes. Mesut Ozil, Gareth Bale, Antoine Griezmann and Xabi Alonso were all tied in fourth place as they received 0.84% of the votes by the 118 professional footballers plying their trade in the Brasileirao.
After winning the France Football Magazine's prestigious Ballon d'Or award, Ronaldo's eyes will be on winning the FIFA's best Men's footballer of the year award which is scheduled on 9 January in Zurich. This is the first time since 2009 that Ballon d'Or and FIFA will have separate award ceremonies.
The Ballon d’Or award is decided by votes from 173 journalists from all over the world, the FIFA Best Player of the year will be decided by votes from Captains and coaches of all the FIFA associated nations with some weightage given to fans votes as well for the first time ever.
Meanwhile, in another question posted on the Brazilian website, UOL, the question "Who is your all time footballing idol?" saw Ronaldo Nazario winning the pole with 21.18% of the votes with Romario coming second with 12.71% of the votes followed by Pele who surprisingly came third with only 7.62% of the votes registered on the website.
