Ronaldo, 36, who left the Italian team Juventus in the summer for Manchester United, has not been off of the podium since 2010, when the first three places were occupied by FC Barcelona players (Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández).

The Portuguese international, who trained at Sporting and who has also played for Real Madrid and Juventus, won in 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017, was second in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2018, and was third in 2019.

In 2020, the Ballon d'Or was not handed over by the magazine, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this year's edition, Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) was 21st, equal with the Argentine Lautaro Martínez, while Rúben Dias (Manchester City) was 26th, also equal with the Spaniard Gerard Moreno and the Italian Nicolò Barella.

Messi continues to reign

Argentine Lionel Messi was once again the winner of the award, making this his seventh title and beating off competition form Poland's Robert Lewandowski.

The striker, now at the service of French club Paris Saint-Germain, led Argentina to victory in the Copa América, in a competition in which he was the best player, scorer and 'king' of assists, in addition to total time played (630 minutes).

In second place was striker Robert Lewandowski, from Bayern Munich, who was also named striker of the year, while the Italian-Brazilian Jorginho, from Chelsea, chosen as club of the year, was third.

As for other men's trophies, Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who left AC Milan in the summer for French club Paris Saint-Germain, took the prize for best goalkeeper (Troféu Yashin) and Spaniard Pedri, from FC Barcelona, best player under the age of 21 (Kopa Trophy).

Spanish player Alexia Putellas, who plays for FC Barcelona, ​​won the women's Ballon d'Or, succeeding American Megan Rapinoe.