Cristiano Ronaldo, to nobody's surprise, took home the inaugural The Best Fifa Men's Player award, beating out his great rival Lionel Messi in the process. Having won the Ballon d'Or last month, this was another recognition of the stellar year that the Real Madrid superstar had in 2016.
Ronaldo beats Messi to Ballon d'Or
It is a given now that when these individual football awards season come to town, only two players are really in contention. And with Ronaldo winning the Champions League and Euro 2016, with Real Madrid and Portugal respectively, in 2016, the Portuguese had the upper hand over Messi, who won the La Liga and Copa Del Rey titles with Barcelona, while going down in a major final again in international football, when Argentina lost to Chile in the Copa America Centenario.
Antoine Griezmann, who was the third man on the shortlist, came in, well, third. Griezmann, who was the golden boot winner at Euro 2016, and finished runners-up for France and Atletico Madrid in Euro 2016 and the Champions League respectively, garnered a mere 7.53 per cent of the votes.
Ronaldo was the clear winner with 34.54 per cent of the total votes, while Lionel Messi had 26.42 per cent.
The Best FIFA Men's Coach 2016 honour went to the Italian Claudio Ranieri, who guided Leicester City to a fairytale title in in 2016. Ranieri was in the shortlist along with Zinedine Zidane, the Real Madrid manager, and Fernando Santos, the Portugal head coach, and the Italian came up trumps, thanks to his outstanding efforts with Leicester, who defied all odds to clinch the Premier League title.
Carli Lloyd took home The Best FIFA Women's Player 2016 award, with the American star coming in ahead of Brazil's Marta and Melanie Behringer of Germany.
The Best FIFA Men's Player 2016: Winner: Cristiano Ronaldo (34.54 per cent)
Lionel Messi (26.42 per cent)
Antoine Griezmann (7.53 per cent).
The Best FIFA Men's Coach 2016: Winner: Claudio Ranieri (22.6 per cent)
Zinedine Zidane (16.56 per cent)
Fernando Santos (16.24 per cent).
The Best FIFA Women's Player 2016: Winner: Carli Lloyd (20.68 per cent)
Marta (16.60 per cent)
Melanie Behringer (12.34 per cent).
The Best FIFA Women's Coach 2016: Winner: Silvia Neid (29.99 per cent)
Jill Ellis (16.68 per cent)
Pia Sundhage (16.47 per cent).
The FIFA Puskas Award 2016 (for best goal of the year, voted by the fans): Winner: Mohd Faiz Subri (59.46 per cent)
Marlone (22.86 per cent)
Daniuska Rodriguez (10.01 per cent).
FIFA Fan Award 2016 (voted by the fans): Winners: Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool supporters (45.92 per cent)
Iceland supporters (31.37 per cent)
ADO Den Haag supporters (22.71 per cent).
