Cristiano Ronaldo Wins the Ballon d’Or

It's been quite the year for Portugal's most prized international:

• Not only was Cristiano Ronaldo the glue dude for A Seleção on their way to claiming the EuroCup 2016 title,
• He was front and center all season long as Real Madrid finished top of La Liga's table, and
• He may have been held scoreless in Real's Super Cup triumph, but nobody disputed that he was a presence.

So there was no surprise as to who was gonna collect his fourth Ballon d’Or.

Well?

By the fourth time, the presentation could use a bit of novelty.

And acceptance speeches always boil down to one platitude, anyway:

It's better to get a first-hand hint as to how Ronaldo got there:

Dude's now one step closer to Lionel Messi and his career haul of five golden orbs.

This year's runner-up didn't have as many shining moments:

• Argentina got blanked yet again in the battle for Copa America hardware, and of course,
• Barcelona fell short in the La Liga chase.

Still, as Scarlett O'Hara so logically said in Gone with the Wind:

That's the good part.

It means their personal series of one-upsmanship will continue.