Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or for the second time in his career, equaling Alfredo Di Stefano, Franz Beckenbauer, Kevin Keegan, Karl Heinz Rummenigge and Ronaldo Nazario, all with two such awards to their credit. Only Lionel Messi (4), Michel Platini (3) and Marco Van Basten (3) have more.
CR7 won the coveted individual trophy in football five years from his first success (2008), equaling Ronaldo Nazario’s performance (1997-2002), the two becoming footballers who have waited longest between two trophies.
Even if he did not win any trophy in 2013, Cristiano Ronaldo is not the first winner of the Ballon d’Or who are in this situation. Matthews (1956), Law (1964), Muller (1970), Keegan (1978) and Figo (2000) won the trophy without winning any with their teams in those years.
27.99% of voters elected Cristiano Ronaldo, 24.72% have voted for Messi and for Franck Ribery only 23.36%. The Real Madrid star is the first Portuguese that wins Ballon d’Or twice, Eusebio and Figo having won only a trophy. The last six Ballon d’Or were won only of two players: Cristiano Ronaldo (2008 and 2013) and Leo Messi (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012)
Ronaldo is the first player of Real Madrid that wins the Ballon d’Or after Ronaldo Nazario (2002), and the first who played for the Galactic team the entire year, after Alfredo Di Stefano (1959).
Although wept for joy when awarding the trophy, Cristiano Ronaldo has a concern after winning the Ballon d’Or. Never in the history of football, this trophy winner has managed to win the World Cup with the national team the following year! Gianni Rivera (Italy), Johan Cruyff (Netherlands), Karl Heinz Rummenigge (Germany), Roberto Baggio (Italy) and Ronaldo Nazario (Brazil) finished in 2nd place, but failed to overcome “The Curse of the Ballon d’Or”