Wins Fifa Player of Year award, Zidane is top manager

London, Oct. 24: Cristiano Ronaldo’s stunning last season saw him win the 2017 Best Fifa men’s player of the year trophy as Real Madrid dominated a star-studded awards ceremony in London.

The Portuguese ace, who has scored 44 goals in just 48 games for club and country so far this calendar year, played a major role in Real winning both La Liga and the Champions League.

He scored twice in a 4-1 win over Juventus in the continental final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on June 3.

Ronaldo saw off competition from longstanding Barcelona rival Lionel Messi and Paris SaintGermain’s Neymar, the world’s most expensive player.

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.

Ronaldo won the inaugural Best Fifa men’s player of the year award last year following the end of a six-year merger between the Fifa honour and the Ballon D’Or.

The 32-year-old previously won the Fifa World Player of the Year award, the precursor to the Best Fifa award, in 2008.

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.

Real’s superb campaign was recognised in a FIFPro team that featured Ronaldo and club-mates Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Marcelo and Sergio Ramos.

The XI also included Fifa’s goalkeeper of the year, Gianluigi Buffon.

AC Milan’s Leonardo Bonucci and PSG’s Dani Alves were in the defence, with Barcelona playmaker Andres Iniesta in a side also featuring Messi and Neymar.

Juventus and Italy shotstopper Buffon topped a three-strong shortlist for the goalkeeper award ahead of Real’s Keylor Navas and Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer. GIROUD’S BEST

GOAL The award night also saw the Puskas Award for the best goal of 2017 go to Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud.

Meanwhile, tournament hosts the Netherlands’ achievement in winning their first major female football title, the 2017 Women’s European Championship, was recognised with Women’s Coach of the Year and Player of the Year awards for Sarina Wiegman and Lieke Martens respectively.

Supporters of Celtic won the Fan Award for the way they marked the 50th anniversary of the ‘Lisbon Lions’ European Cup triumph that saw the Glasgow side become the first British club to lift the trophy. The Fair Play award went to Francis Kone for saving the life of goalkeeper Martin Berkovec.

— AFP Real Madrid’s coach Zinedine Zidane (right) stands with his Best Fifa men’s coach trophy alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, who won the Best Fifa men’s player award in London on Monday.

— AP Diego Armando Maradona (left) and his partner Rocio Olivia at Fifa 2017 awards event at the Palladium Theatre in London on Monday.

Lionel Messi (from left) with his wife Antonella Roccuzzo seated next to Cristiano Ronaldo, his son Cristiano Ronaldo Jr and his partner Georgina Rodriguez at the Fifa awards ceremony.