Five feats achieved in 2014 by Real Madrid and Portugal
forward Cristiano Ronaldo who on Monday won the Ballon
d’Or world player of the year for the third time:
+ Champions League goals record
Ronaldo led Real Madrid to their
10th European crown — La
Decima — in sensational style by
smashing Lionel Messi’s record of
15 Champions League goals in a
single season with 17 in just 11
appearances.

+ King of the hat-trick
After the conquest of La Decima,
there has been no letting up from
the 29-year-old Ronald this season
as he has already bagged four hat-
tricks in La Liga.
His latest treble against Celta Vigo
in December was a record-
breaking 23rd in the Spanish top flight to take him clear of
Real legend Alfredo di Stefano and Telmo Zarra, who both
managed 22.

+ Portugal’s all-time leading scorer
Ronaldo unseated Pauleta to become Portugal’s all-time
leading marksman with 52 international goals.
He also became the first Portuguese player to score in three
World Cup finals, but his solitary strike against Ghana was
not enough to prevent the 2006 semi-finalists bowing out at
the group stage.

+ Unstoppable at the Bernabeu
Ronaldo was impossible for opposition defence to tie down
at Real Madrid in 2014. He scored in every La Liga game in
which he played at the Santiago Bernabeu, striking 23 times
in just 14 games.

+ Fastest start to a season yet
Despite the presence of Messi and a niggling knee injury
which forced him to miss a league game early in the season,
Ronaldo has almost certainly wrapped up a third Pichichi
award for La Liga’s top goalscorer in 2014-15.
The former Manchester United man has smashed in 26 goals
in just 16 games to also become the first man to in Spanish
history to score more than 25 times in six La Liga seasons.
List of award winners at 2014 Ballon d’Or ceremony held in
Zurich on Monday:
Ballon d’Or: Cristiano Ronaldo (POR/Real Madrid)
Woman player of the year: Nadine Kessler (GER/Wolfsburg)
Men’s team coach of the year: Joachim Loew (GER/
Allemagne)
Women’s team coach of the year: Ralf Kellermann (GER/
Wolfsburg)
Puskas prize for best goal: James Rodriguez (COL/Real
Madrid)
Fairplay: Brazil 2014 World Cup volunteers
Presidents prize: Hiroshi Kagawa (JPN), oldest journalist (89)
at 2014 World Cup finals which was the 10th one he had
covered.

Team of the year:
Manuel Neuer (GER/Bayern Munich); Sergio Ramos (ESP/
Real Madrid), Thiago Silva (BRA/Paris SG), David Luiz (BRA/
Paris SG), Philipp Lahm (GER/Bayern Munich); Andrés Iniesta
(ESP/Barcelona), Toni Kroos (GER/Real Madrid), Ángel Di
Maria (ARG/Manchester United); Arjen Robben (NED/Bayern
Munich), Lionel Messi (ARG/Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo
(POR/Real Madrid)

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