So, erm, not much else to do here. I’d expected to be doing the big Ronaldo reaction thing to finish this off, but they decided to announce the winner in the middle of the ceremony and remove any sort of interest or suspense from the rest. Most odd.
Before we go, a rundown of the top 19 in this year’s Ballon d’Or list:
1 – Cristiano Ronaldo
2 – Lionel Messi
3 – Antoine Griezmann
4 – Luis Suarez
5 – Neymar
6 – Gareth Bale
7 – Riyad Mahrez
8 – Jamie Vardy
9= – Pepe
9= – Gianluigi Buffon
11 – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
12 – Rui Patricio
13 – Zlatan Ibrahimovic
14= – Arturo Vidal
14= – Paul Pogba
16 – Robert Lewandowski
17= – Dimitri Payet
17= – Toni Kroos
17= – Luka Modric
The players to receive no votes were: Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Paulo Dybala, Diego Godin, Gonzalo Higuain, Andres Iniesta, Koke, Hugo Lloris, Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer and Sergio Ramos .
I’d like to say it was exciting but, well, it’s been nice having you all here as ever. We made it fun, didn’t we? Thanks for your company and we’ll do this again another time.
Updated
Second – LIONEL MESSI
To round off a frankly bizarre night they announced second and third together. Messi is second, as we knew all along. He’ll doubtless be back there or thereabouts next year.
Third – ANTOINE GRIEZMANN
He deserves that – so unlucky not to win one of the biggest collective prizes in May/July.
Updated
Still waiting for third. Why the wait? We can’t know. Why on earth have they done it like this? Ours is not to reason why.
Fourth – LUIS SUAREZ
Might have been onto something. How outstanding he’s been this year – I make it 39 goals for club and country.
Updated
Remember how Neymar was Brazil’s shoot-out hero? Barney captured it wonderfully:
Fifth – NEYMAR
Yes, here we go – the Barcelona forward and Olympic gold medalist is fifth! I reckon that means Messi two, Griezmann three, Suarez four – but what do I know?
Can’t be long til tonight’s dramatic climax – the naming of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th!
Ben Gaunt has a take on that adaptability point:
“Matt’s opinion is that adaptability is a factor when judging the relative
abilities of players. Messi has proven to be adaptable because he now plays in a
different position. However, a similar argument could be made for Ronaldo; that he has won trophies at two clubs and for his national team and has therefore proven that he, too, can adapt.”
Updated
Most significant thing about Ronaldo's Ballon d'Or is that his 4th has come 8 years after his 1st. Reminds you how long he's been this good.
— Tim Collins (@TimDCollins) December 12, 2016
I agree with this point.
@NickAmes82 such biased journalism @Cristiano is a true & worthy winner, if you can't appreciate, atleast don't humiliate or disrespect
— Akshay Agarwal (@akshayagarwal_7) December 12, 2016
Sorry?
I’m here til they name the full list. So dig into this from Matt Loten:
“What is your take on the part that the success of the player’s team(s) should play when deciding the winner of an award for the best individual player? In my view, Messi should have won as he has not only matched Ronaldo for end-product once again, but has also evolved into a highly-impressive deep-lying creative midfielder, capable of dictating play from deep when he so chooses. Ronaldo, on the other hand, whilst still a potent attacking force, is finally beginning to decline, and didn’t have a particularly decisive influence in open-play during the two biggest games for his club or country this season.”
I can see that. It’s why I still think Alan Shearer is the best striker the Premier League has seen – because he was basically two different players in his career, but equally effective.
Oh, I do have some Ronaldo quotes for you!
“A great honour to receive my fourth golden ball. The emotion is like the first one. It’s the dream come true again. I never thought in my mind to win the golden ball four times so I’m so pleased and happy. I have the opportunity to thank all my team-mates, the national team, Real Madrid, all the people and players who helped me to win this individual award. So as you can imagine I feel so proud and happy to receive this amazing and beautiful ball.”
We can take from this that he likes the golden ball.
The prevailing wisdom, of course, is that wherever he is in the world Ronaldo must be absolutely loving this. Shame we’ve been robbed of any awkward backslaps or frosty glances between his entourage and Messi’s this year.
Ahan Penkar gets his teeth into a question I asked earlier:
Hey Nick, I find all this individualism in a team game a bit toxic, sure, you’ve got to acknowledge great talent but I believe the Ballon D’or is deeply flawed.
1. How do you judge a player? Right now they seem to be looking at raw statistics and just in terms of assists and goals and all that.
2. Defensive options are snubbed way too often. Comes down to this - how do you assess an individual when you place him in the larger spectrum of his team. It’s honestly a crime Iniesta or Xavi has never won it.
3. Messi is from another planet and so is Ronaldo, but Griezmann had to work with a tougher supporting cast this year.
Sorry Nick, just leaves way too many unanswered questions for me. At least it gives us all license to scream and yell at each other over who’s better.
Ronaldo isn’t actually at the ceremony – Real Madrid are at the World Club Cup in Japan – so there may not be many hot quotes pouring forth. There is, however, a video of him collecting the award earlier this week.
.@Cristiano pose avec son #ballondor pour la quatrième fois. Parabéns ! pic.twitter.com/FXDixgAliq
— L'ÉQUIPE (@lequipe) December 12, 2016
If you’re still pinching yourself, click below for hard news:
Ronaldo earned 745 points in the voting, France Football say. I don’t have much to put that into context just yet, except that it was apparently a very convincing victory.
How are you feeling, Messi fans? Sorry, Barcelona fans – because surely nobody really just supports a player. Sad that your boy’s missed out? Will he come second or will some upstart like Antoine Griezmann pip him? Other possibles are Neymar and Luis Suarez, I’d fancy.
Watch this, too – our video summary of Ronaldo’s Ballon d’Or-winning year:
While I grumble away – just wanted you to have the best user experience here, dear reader – here’s some hot Ronaldo content from that one-off night in Paris. Take it away, David Hytner.
France Football say they’ll publish the rest of the rankings in 45 minutes. Isn’t this all a bit odd? Is this an accepted way of building up suspense for a big countdown? Can anybody advise me of a good reason why they’ve skipped from sixth to first, and won’t tell us of the rather inconsequential 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th til later?
Let’s go through some highlights of Ronaldo’s year. Well, the two big ones. You can see why he’s won this – there was the Champions League final-winning penalty and then, of course, there was the tragically heroic contribution to the Euro 2016 final, that team talk in Paris. He might not be everyone’s cup of tea but that night, in that stadium, you could only be with him. He has also scored 48 goals for club and country!
Le vainqueur du Ballon d'Or France Football 2016 : CRISTIANO RONALDO #ballondor pic.twitter.com/IP5J2s7pqk
— France Football (@francefootball) December 12, 2016
It’s real.
CRISTIANO RONALDO HAS WON THE 2016 BALLON D'OR
I know, right? And, errr, I’m not sure why they’ve just gone straight from No6 to No1. No idea. Doesn’t make sense at all. But there you go!
Updated
Sixth – GARETH BALE
Nah, let’s give them all a big headline from hereon. Didn’t have to worry about this stuff in the olden days of Fleet Street did they? Anyway, Bale down in six ... is that a bit low? In a certain ranking I’ve had some input into, I put him at number two. Ever more influential for Real until his recent injury, and the Wales stuff speaks for itself.
The speed of the awards ceremony – invisible to my eye – seems to be picking up, but I think it’s another hour or so til they name Ronaldo the winner, so I assume there’ll be various flim-flam that we’ll need to compensate for here.
Seventh – RIYAD MAHREZ
He can have big letters too. The PFA Player of the Year, no less, and he just pips his team-mate. Just fancy Leicester having two players on this list, though.
As Vardy was the poster boy for Leicester’s heroics, it’s a great chance to remind you of this outstanding inside-story piece from the likewise outstanding Stuart James. It’s worth your time.
Eighth – JAMIE VARDY
I’ve put that in big letters because that’s his ranking and surely he’ll be the only English candidate in there. And what an exalted position for him; he wouldn’t have dreamed of that when playing for Stocksbridge, etcetera and so forth. There you go.
Mads Pihl hopes we see an old favourite further up the charts:
“For all the decisive goals Messi scores Iniesta seems to be the deciding factor for Barcelona – just look at how they zigzagged this autumn while he was injured.
I know he is not exactly underrated - but I still think he is underrated.”
Equal ninth – PEPE
You might love him, you might loathe him, but remember that this is an assessment of a player’s year 2016. Pepe was one of the best, most important players at Euro 2016 and for my money deserves this.
Remember this achievement of Buffon’s this year. And remember that poem he wrote in praise of his goal! What’s not to adore?
Down to the top 10!
Equal ninth – GIANLUIGI BUFFON
I agree with this. Good decision. He has been excellent at all levels – and is 39 next month!
What are your feelings about this award? The fact of it and the status it has these days? Is it healthy that people apparently aspire towards it, do you think? I’m not trying to lead you in any direction, I’m just curious. Email away.
So, if Messi wins tonight it’ll be his sixth Ballon d’Or. If – if if if IF! – Ronaldo wins it’ll be his fourth. Ronaldo won two in a row in 2013 and 2014, so it’s getting shared around at the moment. If Ronaldo wins this year, of course.
Big billing for Rui Patricio, you’ll have noticed. Will that see him head off Neuer, Lloris, Buffon and company? It’s nice to see a fresh face in there, to be fair.
Let’s see how it’s been going so far then. The ceremony started at No17 – obviously, duh – and is getting pretty close to the top 10:
=17 – Luka Modric
=17 – Toni Kroos
=17 – Dimitri Payet. A three-way tie!
16 – Robert Lewandowski
=14– Paul Pogba
=14 – Arturo Vidal
13 – Zlatan Ibrahimovic
12 – Rui Patricio (yep)
11 – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Fair, so far?
Welcome
It’s the award today’s youth – so we’re told – dream of. Who needs a World Cup final when YOU can be the best? You, you, you! No, let’s not be snide, the Ballon d’Or has been around in various formats for a long time now so let’s tip our caps to its historical merit for an hour or two. And let’s see who’s won! We all know it’s Cristiano Ronaldo after an apparent leak did the rounds earlier It’s probably a Ronaldo-Messi shoot-out, and of course the latter won out last time. So let’s take a deep breath and revel in the suspense.
Please send in some tweets and emails. I’m not sure there’s much of a live feed going on so we’ll need each other. We’ll pick up on this year’s countdown as it moves into the world’s top 10 footballers, so how about sending me yours? Go on.
Updated
Nick Will be here shortly.
