Cristiano Ronaldo wins Golden Ball award

Ronaldo won the European Footballer of the Year award, becoming the fourth Manchester United player to take the honour.

Ronaldo won the Golden Ball awarded to the European Footballer of the Year, becoming the fourth Manchester United player to take the honour and the first since fellow winger George Best in 1968.

Ronaldo’s brilliant scoring form helped him beat Barcelona striker Lionel Messi into second place, while Liverpool forward Fernando Torres was third in the poll results announced overnight by France Football magazine.

Ronaldo dominated the voting, tallying 446 points. Messi had 281 points and Torres had 179.

That gave Ronaldo two points more than Kaka won last year’s award with.

Ronaldo was second last year with 277, while Messi was third with 255. Kaka, Milan’s Brazilian playmaker, was eighth this time with only 31 points.

Ronaldo scored 42 goals in all competitions last season as United won the Premier League and Champions League trophies.

The 23-year-old Ronaldo adds the Ballon d’Or award to the FIFA Pro World Player of the Year trophy he won in October, and the Professional Footballers Association and the Football Writers awards.

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He also becomes the first Premier League player to win since former Liverpool forward Michael Owen in 2001, and the first Portuguese player since winger Luis Figo won it with Real Madrid in 2000.

France Football’s award was decided by an annual poll of football journalists with a short list of 30 players.

Following Portugal’s disappointing showing at the European Championship in June, Ronaldo underwent an operation to his troublesome right ankle injury in July that then kept him sidelined until September 17.

After a slow start, he appeared to be heading back to top form with eight league goals in 11 games until Sunday’s red card against Manchester City drew headlines for the wrong reason.

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Already booked for a needless foul on Manchester City’s Shaun Wright-Phillips, Ronaldo jumped to meet a corner kick and, instead of heading the ball toward the City goal, batted it down with his hands.

To his amazement, he was shown a second yellow card followed swiftly by the red one. He later said he thought he had heard the referee blow his whistle and that’s why he handled the ball.

The 21-year-old Messi scored several breathtaking goals for Barca last season, and also helped Argentina defeat Nigeria 1-0 to win the Olympic gold medal at Beijing in August.

Messi has stepped up his form since then, with nine league goals in 11 games for Barca — one less than he got in 27 games last season — as he continues to develop a flourishing partnership with Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o.

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“He is the kind of player I really like,” Kaka said.

“Like Cristiano Ronaldo, he dribbles, he scores. Messi often does it all on his own.”

Torres helped Spain win the European Championship in June, scoring the lone goal in the final against Germany.

Torres, hit by several niggling injuries this term, also scored 24 league goals in his debut season with the Reds but has struggled so far this season.

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Ronaldo’s United teammates Wayne Rooney, Edwin van der Sar and Nemanja Vidic were nominated, as were Chelsea’s Michael Ballack, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.