London: Cristiano Ronaldo has set his sights on a ‘lucky seventh’ piece of FIFA silverware after collecting his fifth ‘Men’s Player of the Year’ award Monday.
Ronaldo’s Real Madrid, who won both the La Liga and the Champions League last season, dominated the 2017 The FIFA Best Football Awards at a star-studded ceremony at the Palladium theatre here Monday evening.
The Portuguese ace has scored 44 goals in just 48 games for club and country so far this calendar year, including two in a 4-1 Champions League final win over Juventus at Cardiff, June 3.
Ronaldo saw off competition from longstanding Barcelona rival Lionel Messi and Paris Saint-Germain’s Neymar. While winning the award he also equalled Messi’s feat of achieving the feat five times.
But, typical of a footballer who has enjoyed huge success at both Manchester United and Real, the talismanic striker was not satisfied. “I want seven. Five is good but seven is my lucky number so seven would be great,” Ronaldo stated.
Real boss Zinedine Zidane took the corresponding ‘Manager of the Year’ award, with the Spanish giants providing five players in the FIFPro team of the year.
“Thanks a lot for voting for me,” said Ronaldo after receiving his trophy from Argentina great Diego Maradona and Brazil’s Ronaldo. “I mention Leo and Neymar, great to be here. Real Madrid supporters, my teammates, my coach, they all support me all year. We are in England for the first time and I win consecutive awards. This is a great moment for me. I have fans all over the world,” added the Portuguese captain.
Zidane won out ahead of Chelsea’s Antonio Conte and Juventus’s Massimiliano Allegri to be crowned men’s coach of the year after becoming the first man to oversee a successful defence of the European Cup in the Champions League era.
“I’d like to thank all of the players for making this possible,” said Zidane. “This is a very special prize.”
Juventus and Italy shot-stopper Buffon topped a three-strong shortlist for the ‘Goalkeeper of the Year’ award ahead of Real’s Keylor Navas and Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer. Monday also saw the ‘Puskas Award’ for the best ‘Goal of the Year’ 2017 go to Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud. He got it for his spectacular ‘scorpion-kick’ strike in an EPL game against Crystal Palace in January.
Meanwhile tournament hosts the Netherlands’ achievement in winning their first major female football title, the 2017 Women’s European Championships, was recognised with ‘Women’s Coach of the Year’ and ‘Player of the Year’ awards for Sarina Wiegman and Lieke Martens respectively.
List of achievers
Men’s player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo
Men’s coach of the year Zinedine Zidane
Men’s team of the year Real Madrid
Goalkeeper of the year Gianluigi Buffon
Goal of the year Olivier Giroud
Women’s player of the year Lieke Martens
Women’s coach of the year Sarina Wiegman
Agence France-Presse
