RONALDO WINS HIS THIRD BALON d'OR

The Portuguese and Real Madrid superstar striker Cristiano Ronaldo has beaten Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona and Manuel Neuer, the FC Bayern Munich goalkeeper, to retain the Fifa footballer of the year (Ballon d'Or) he won in 2013.



Criatiano Ronaldo in action

This 2014 award made it thrice that the skillful and tantalizing footballer has won the highest individual honour that is awarded in the game of soccer.

Manuel Neuer is the second goalkeeper ever to make the final shortlist of three in the history of the award.

The three players had a wonderful season in 2014, but it could be said that Lionel Messi even though performed creditably, it was a bit below his usual standard.

In anyones standard the duminitive skillful and amazingly talented striker performed well but not to the level the whole world was acustomed to enjoy watching him.

Ronaldo the eventual winner and Manuel Neuer had an incredible 2014 with a couple of titles to show for it.

Cristiano Ronaldo won two major titles - Champions League and the Copa del Rey, while Neuer won Fifa World Cup, German league and the DFB Pokal.

Nadine Kessler of Germany and Wolfsburg club won the Women's footballer of the year, while her coach Ralf Kellermann won Women's coach of the year. 

Joachim Lowe, the German national coach who led his team to win their 4th world Cup trophy in Brazil, won the coach of the year. Read also: Africanfootie.blogspot.com

The Puskas Award, that is the goal of the year, was won by James Rodriguez. His wonderful strike against Uruguay in the World Cup was judged to be better than the piece of skillfull volley from Irish woman Stephanie Roche.