Real Madrid: Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo honored with the best manager and best player of the year awards
By Ben Sundock
Both Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane and Real star Cristiano Ronaldo took home prestigious awards at the FIFA The Best Awards in London, England earlier today. Zidane won the award for best manager in the world and Ronaldo won the award for the best male player in the world for the second consecutive year!
Zinedine Zidane: FIFA The Best Award for Manager of the Year
It comes as little surprise that after guiding Real Madrid to two Champions League titles and a La Liga title in a little less than two years, Zizou be crowned the best manager in the world.
With the award, Zidane becomes the first man to ever win the Ballon d’Or as a player (he won it in 1998 with Juventus) and also win the best manager of the year award.
In 2017 with Zizou in charge, the club has played 49 matches, winning 36 while scoring a stunning 136 goals and capturing four trophies.
Zidane beat out Chelsea manager Antonio Conte and Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri to capture the trophy. In an award ceremony that heavily featured Real Madrid players and coaches, the former French international spoke humbly.
“I’d like to thank all of the players for making this possible,” he said. “This is a very special prize.”
“Thank you to Real Madrid for the opportunity. And to Cristiano, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Modric… everyone.”
Cristiano Ronaldo: FIFA The Best Award for Male Player of the Year
The GOAT, Cristiano Ronaldo, continues to reel in the awards. After winning this same award just a year ago, the Portuguese beast was able to capture the award for Best Male Player of 2017.
Cristiano beat out rival Lionel Messi and Neymar to win the award again. According to ESPNFC, CR7 received 43.16% of the votes with Messi finishing a distant second with 19.25% of the votes. The voters for the award consisted of national team coaches, captains, some media, and a handful of fans.
“Thank you a lot to the guys for voting for me,” Ronaldo said in his speech. “[I want] to give a mention to Leo and Neymar to be here, Real Madrid supporters, my teammates, my coach, my president –they support me all the year so I have to say thank you to them.”
Amazing feeling to have won this award again. Want to dedicate to my family, my friends, my teammates and coaches from both Real Madrid and Portuguese NT and everyone who supported me. pic.twitter.com/umpYMo1JZg
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 23, 2017
Ronaldo will now look to win his fifth Ballon d’Or later this year which would bring him level with Messi.
Both awards are well deserved as manager Zizou and on-field leader Cristiano guided the White Shirts to their best season in recent memory.
Both Zidane and Ronaldo remain hungry for more titles and more success down the road as they look to defend their UCL title for the third consecutive season.
Next: Looking ahead: It gets easier for Real Madrid