Cristiano Ronaldo was up against 29 of the world's best players in Thursday night's Ballon d'Or ceremony, but really it was a battle between two - the Real Madrid superstar and his Barcelona rival, Lionel Messi.
Ronaldo pipped Lionel Messi (2nd) and Antoine Griezmann (3rd) in last year's ceremony to claim his fourth gong and was the bookmakers' favourite
to repeat that feat, thereby equalling Messi on five.
He did so in style by beating edging Messi and Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar to claim his fifth Ballon d'Or gong in a ceremony held in Paris.
For the 2017 award, Messi was voted second, Neymar third and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon came fourth.
List of previous winners
1956 Stanley Matthews
1957 Alfredo Di Stefano
1958 Raymond Kopa
1959 Alfredo Di Stefano
1960 Luis Suarez
1961 Omar Sivori
1962 Josef Masopust
1963 Lev Yashin
1964 Denis Law
1965 Eusebio
1966 Bobby Charlton
1967 Florian Albert
1968 George Best
1969 Gianni Rivera
1970 Gerd Muller
1971 Johan Cruyff
1972 Franz Beckenbauer
1973 Johan Cruyff
1974 Johan Cruyff
1975 Oleg Blokhin
1976 Franz Beckenbauer
1977 Allan Simonsen
1978 Kevin Keegan
1979 Kevin Keegan
1980 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
1981 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
1982 Paolo Rossi
1983 Michel Platini
1984 Michel Platini
1985 Michel Platini
1986 Igor Belanov
1987 Ruud Gullit
1988 Marco van Basten
1989 Marco van Basten
1990 Lothar Matthaus
1991 Jean-Pierre Papin
1992 Marco van Basten
1993 Roberto Baggio
1994 Hristo Stoichkov
1995 George Weah
1996 Matthias Sammer
1997 Ronaldo
1998 Zinedine Zidane
1999 Rivldo
2000 Luis Figo
2001 Michael Owen
2002 Ronaldo
2003 Pavel Nedved
2004 Andriy Shevchenko
2005 Ronaldinho
2006 Fabio Cannavaro
2007 Kaka
2008 Cristiano Ronaldo
2009 Lionel Messi
2010 Lionel Messi
2011 Lionel Messi
2012 Lionel Messi
2013 Cristiano Ronaldo
2014 Cristiano Ronaldo
2015 Lionel Messi
2016 Cristiano Ronaldo
2017 Cristiano Ronaldo
