Cristiano Ronaldo wins fifth Ballon d'Or to match the level with Lionel Messi

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The Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded the fifth Ballon d'Or award of his career on Thursday, matching Lionel Messi as the most-awarded winner of one of the sport's top individual honors.

Ronaldo won the award for the second consecutive time, after a year that saw him help Madrid to a third Champions League crown in four seasons and a first La Liga title in five years, as well as the FIFA Club World Cup.

The Portuguese said: "Of course I feel happy, it's a great moment in my career and I'm glad. This is something that I (have been) looking forward (to) every year, every season. So I'm glad that last year we did amazing when we won the Champions League, we won the La Liga, and in terms of individual I was the best scorer in the Champions League."

Cristiano Ronaldo holds the trophy. /VCG Photo

In October, Ronaldo also won FIFA's top award, being named Best Men's Player for the second straight year by beating Messi and Neymar.

Barcelona's Messi finished second in the voting, and his ex-Barcelona teammate Neymar, now at Paris St-Germain, was third.

Thursday's award marked the seventh straight year that Messi and Ronaldo have finished in the top two for the Ballon d'Or. There are no other players won this award since Kaka in 2007, when Ronaldo was second and Messi third.

Ronaldo previously won in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016. And Messi is the only other recipient of the award since 2009, who won the award four straight times from 2009-2012, as well as in 2015.