World body hails king of beautiful game – yet again

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 on Monday.

Ronaldo’s Real Madrid side, who won both La Liga and the Champions League last season, dominated this year’s Best Fifa football awards at a star-studded ceremony in London on Monday.

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 in Cardiff on June 3.

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

But, typical of a footballer who has enjoyed huge success at both Manchester United and Real, Ronaldo was not satisfied.

“I want seven. Five is good but seven is my lucky number . . . ” he said.

Real boss Zinedine Zidane took the 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 sixyear merger between the Fifa honour and France Football’s 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.

He has now won the last two Fifa men’s trophies, as well as three of the last four Ballon D’Or awards.

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.”

Fifa’s goalkeeper of the year was Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon.

Monday also saw the Puskas Award for the best goal of this year go to Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud.

The France striker received the award named in honour of Hungary great Ferenc Puskas for a spectacular ‘scorpion-kick’ against Crystal Palace in January.

The Fair Play award went to Francis Kone for saving the life of goalkeeper Martin Berkovec, who nearly suffocated as a result of swallowing his tongue during a Czech league match in February. — AFP