{"id":3532,"date":"2026-10-29T17:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T17:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/29\/ronaldo-thanks-fans-after-winning-greatest-ballon-dor-award\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T17:00:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T17:00:46","slug":"ronaldo-thanks-fans-after-winning-greatest-ballon-dor-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/29\/ronaldo-thanks-fans-after-winning-greatest-ballon-dor-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo thanks fans after winning greatest Ballon d\u2019Or award"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"490\" height=\"275\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/cristiano-ronaldo-22-490x275-1.webp\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Ronaldo thanks fans after winning greatest Ballon d\u2019Or award\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/cristiano-ronaldo-22-490x275-1.webp 490w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/cristiano-ronaldo-22-490x275-1-300x168.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Adegboyega Adeleye<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cristiano Ronaldo has appreciated his fans and supporters around the world after his 2008 Ballon d\u2019Or-winning season was voted the best in the history of the prestigious individual football award in a public poll organised to celebrate its 70th anniversary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Ballon d\u2019Or announced Ronaldo as the winner of its \u201cBallon d\u2019Or of All Time\u201d (BOAT) vote on Wednesday, after fans had their say in a poll that made them choose their favourite Ballon d\u2019Or-winning season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a post on X today, Ronaldo appreciated his fans, as he dedicated the award to them. He wrote: \u201cFootball belongs to the fans! Thank you to all the fans around the world, the Ballon D\u2019Or of All Time is also yours.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-x\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Football belongs to the fans! Thank you to all the fans around the world, the Ballon D\u2019Or of All Time is also yours. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S0sLDNiUUY\">pic.twitter.com\/S0sLDNiUUY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Cristiano\/status\/2115797314434695516?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 29, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ronaldo\u2019s message followed his victory in the inaugural Ballon d\u2019Or of All Time (BOAT) public vote, organised by France Football. Fans chose their favourite Ballon d\u2019Or-winning season, and Ronaldo\u2019s 2008 campaign finished ahead of Lionel Messi\u2019s 2012 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 41-year-old winning season came with Manchester United in 2007\u201308, where he scored 42 goals in all competitions, including 31 in the Premier League and seven in the Champions League. United won both the Premier League and Champions League, with Ronaldo scoring in the final against Chelsea. His league tally earned him the European Golden Shoe, and he went on to win his first Ballon d\u2019Or later that year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Portuguese legend subsequently won the award four more times, in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017, taking his career tally to five.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lionel Messi\u2019s 2012 season finished second in the poll, with Ronaldo\u2019s 2017 campaign third. Messi\u2019s 2023 season took fourth, while Ronaldo\u2019s 2016 campaign rounded out the top five. The top ten also includes Ronaldo\u2019s 2014 and 2013 seasons, plus Messi\u2019s 2015, 2011 and 2009 campaigns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The BOAT vote was a fan poll celebrating the award\u2019s 70th anniversary, rather than a new Ballon d\u2019Or trophy. Voting opened on October 1 and closed on October 27, with the result announced on October 28.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2026\/10\/ronaldo-thanks-fans-after-winning-greatest-ballon-dor-award\/\">Ronaldo thanks fans after winning greatest Ballon d\u2019Or award<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/\">Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adegboyega Adeleye Cristiano Ronaldo has appreciated his fans and supporters around the world after his 2008 Ballon d\u2019Or-winning season was voted the best in the history of the prestigious&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}