Cristiano Ronaldo was crowned the Ballon d’Or winner for the 4th time in his stellar career on Monday. Elite journalists from all over the world – 173 in total – took part in the voting process and in the final results, Ronaldo won by a massive margin.
The Real Madrid superstar captured 745 points while his rival Lionel Messi could collect only 316 points. In the voting process, each journalist had to pick three players, with the first choice getting 5 points, second choice getting 3 points and the third choice getting 1 point.
The Portuguese captain had a stellar year, guiding Real Madrid to their 11th Champions League title and Portugal to their first ever major international trophy when they won the European Championships in July,
His victories, combined with his incredible goalscoring stats were enough to influence plenty of voters, but still journalists from 11 nations opted to leave out Real Madrid’s main man from the shortlist.
The countries are:
Uruguay
Turkmenistan
Swaziland
Namibia
Romania
Libya
Iran
Central African republic
Bolivia
Cape Verde and
Andorra.
Having already claimed the prestigious individual prize, Ronaldo will now be shifting his attention to the Club World Cup with Real Madrid slated to play the semi-final against Atletico Nacional on Thursday.
Also read: Cristiano Ronaldo says he would have won more Ballon d'Ors than Lionel Messi if they were team mates
Tax issues spoil Ballon d’Or win for Ronaldo
The European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) media consortium reported in early December that Ronaldo, and several other clients of soccer agency Gestifute, had used tax havens to handle tens of millions of euros in earnings.
Gestifute denied the accusations last week and Ronaldo speaking to France Football after his Ballon d’Or victory admitted that he was disappointed at the timing of charges against him.
"Of course it (allegations) has spoiled it a little bit. I would be lying if I said it hadn't. I'm not a hypocrite," he told soccer magazine France Football.
"I wasn't pleased. The whole process in itself is hard and not only for me, but also for the people alongside me: my family, my son, all those who work with me.
"All that irritates me because I try to do things correctly, be transparent."
The 4-time Ballon d’Or victor insisted that he had nothing to hide:
"You just have to type 'Cristiano Ronaldo' on the Internet and you know everything about me," the Portugal captain said. "I don't have any reason to lie.
"There are a lot of innocent people in prison. And I feel a little bit like that. You know you have done nothing wrong, and they say you have done something reprehensible. No one likes that. But the truth always comes out. Sooner or later."
Fans of the Real Madrid star will be hoping that these tax accusations disappear sooner rather than later.
