Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo has been named Forward of the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League season.
Ronaldo received the accolade during Thursday’s UEFA Champions League group stage draw. Two of his Madrid team-mates – Sergio Ramos and Luka Modrić – also won inaugural positional awards, with Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon taking the best goalkeeper prize.
Ronaldo’s latest individual recognition comes after yet another campaign in which his goalscoring continued unabated. Where to start? UEFA Champions League top scorer for the fifth season running – his 12 goals included two in the 4-1 final defeat of Juventus – Ronaldo was as talismanic as ever in helping the Merengues to become the first team ever to retain the trophy.
In April, the Portuguese international became the first player to reach 100 goals in UEFA club competition – in just 143 appearances – and, only a week later, the first to rack up a century in the UEFA Champions League alone.
Then there was the small matter of 25 Spanish top-flight goals – and a first league title in five years for Madrid – as well as a FIFA Club World Cup triumph in which Ronaldo registered a hat-trick in the final.
Ronaldo’s 2016/17 in numbers
Honours*: UEFA Champions League, Spanish Liga, FIFA Club World Cup
UEFA Champions League
Appearances: 13
Goals: 12
Assists: 6
Domestic league
Appearances: 29
Goals: 25
Assists: 6
How Ronaldo was chosen
The jury was composed of the coaches of the 32 clubs in the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League group stage, together with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, representing each of UEFA’s member associations. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams.
Jury members selected their top three players per position, with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one. The player who received the most points in each category was named the winner.
[uefa]
