Ronaldo Claims What’s Rightfully His

Cristiano Ronaldo has mathematically registered himself with the elite strata of the footballing world by collecting his third Ballon d'Or.

The Portuguese sensation garnered 37.66% of the vote -- if only Florida could be so accurate -- in response to his compiling a year of numerous accomplishments.

As always, it was an impressive list of finalists:

Manuel Neuer, the 'keeper not only for the juggernaut that is FC Bayern, but also for the World Cup champions,

Ronaldo, of course; the most successful player of 2014,

Lionel Messi, possessor of four Ballons d'Or:

 Although Ronaldo had the better stats, the other two had the better prizes: championship rings.

Outlandish comments and subjective discussions always accompany events such as this, which causes obviousness to fade. And so it did. But hands down, from a personal perspective, 2014 was the Real star's year.

Still, Ronaldo must be doing a victory lap in thanks that he didn't have to face the German wall, Manuel Neuer. It's another story with Messi, where über-familiarity has bred ... well ... something.

The World Cup factor was a huge topic of discussion for those who claimed Ronaldo didn't deserve the win due to his poor run in Brazil. If so, then Mario Götze should have won it with his Cup-winning goal:

But one goal does not a Ballon D’or 2014 holder make.