ZURICH: Cristiano Ronaldo, as expected, has been hailed best footballer in the world by international federation in FIFA for the fourth time – after 2008, 2013 and 2014.

His prospective decisive victory ahead of stay-away Leo Messi and Antoine Griezmann at the ceremony in Swiss television studies was suspected as a contributory factor in the Barcelona and Argentina forward being kept at home by his club.

Real Madrid's own congratulations to CR7

The best woman player for 2016 was United States’ veteran captain Carli Lloyd for the seconbd successive year while one of the most popular prizes was the coach award to Italian Claudio Ranieri for his Leicester City ‘miracle’ in the English Premier League.

Germany’s retired Silvia Neid swept the women’s coach accolade.

FIFA had restructured the awards, which had been running since 1990, after ending a five-year partnership with the French magazine France Football. The publication had already awarded its own Ballon d’Or prize to Ronaldo.

He was also hailed World Player of the Year by World Soccer magazine of London.

Portugal’s captain was a Euro 2016 winner with his nation – despite an early injury in the final – and, with Real Madrid, carried off the UEFA Champions League and European Supercup as well as the FIFA Club World Cup only in December.

The men and women’s winners were computed 50pc on the votes of captains (25pc) and head coaches (25pc) from national teams all around the globe. The remaining 50pc was split equally between an online public ballot of football fans (25pc) and submissions from a selected group of media representatives (25pc).

Voting took place between November 4 and November 22, monitored by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Switzerland.

The Puskás Award and Fan Award were voted by fans with the FIFPro World-11 selection organised by a ballot among 45,000 members of the world players’ union.

FIFA Awards:

Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, Portugal), Also shortlisted: Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid, France), Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Argentina)

Best Women’s Player: Carli Lloyd (Houston Dash, United State: 20.68pc). 2nd, Marta (FC Rosengard, Brazil: 16.60); 3rd, Melanie Behringer (Bayern Munich, Germany 12.34pc)

Best Men’s Coach: Claudio Ranieri (Leicester City, Italy: 22.6pc); 2nd, Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid: 16.56pc); 3rd, Fernando Santos (Portugal: 16.24pc),

Best Women’s Coach: Silvia Neid (Germany). Also shortlisted: Jill Ellis (United States), Pia Sundhage (Sweden)

Puskás (best goal) award: Mohd Faiz Subri (Penang FA, Malaysia: 59.46pc); 2nd, Marlone (Corinthians, Brazil: 22.86pc); 3rd, Daniuska Rodriguez (Venezuela: 10.01pc).

Fair Play: Atletico Nacional (Colombia)

Fan Award: Borussia Dortmund & Liverpool supporters (45.92pc); 2nd, Iceland supporters (31.37pc); 3rd, ADO Den Haag supporters (22.71pc).

Outstanding career: Falcao [Alessandro Rosa Vieira] (Brazil, futsal)

FIFA-FIFPro World XI: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich, Germany) – Dani Alves (Barcelona/Juventus, Brz), Gerard Pique (Barcelona, Spain), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid, Spain), Marcelo (Real Madrid, Brazil) – Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid, Germany), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, Spain – Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Argentina), Luis Suarez (Barcelona, Uruguay), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, Portugal).

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