Ronnie wins European player of the year
Date: 02-12-2005 16:00
Barcelona and Brazil star Ronaldinho won the Ballon D'Or on Monday to become the third Samba star to win the award in six years. He fought off competition from Frank Lampard, Thierry Henry and Steven Gerrard to win the France Football European footballer of the year prize in Paris.
The win completes a hat-trick of awards this year, with the Brazilian forward winning both FIFA World Player of the Year and FifPro accolades.
"To be here with all those great players applauding me is a dream come true. It's a great motivation to continue playing," Ronaldinho said after receiving the award.
He continued that he "would like to thank all my team-mates who allowed me to win this, and all those people that love football."
"I have the pleasure to do the thing that I love the most, football.
"All I want is to make people who love football happy.
"I want to dedicate this award to all my friends and family, many of whom cannot be with me tonight."
Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard - who recently broke the record for consecutive Premiership appearances - came second, while European Cup winning Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was third.
Ronaldinho had been tipped to win the award after he was spotted being photographed by France Football journalists in the weeks building up to the presentation.
He won the Spanish league title with Barcelona in 2005 and the FIFA Confederations Cup with Brazil in the same year.
The 25 year-old former Gremio and Paris Saint Germain star has dazzled football fans all over the world with his stunning displays for Barcelona and Brazil, particularly in last week's 3-0 drubbing of fierce rivals Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
Ronaldinho grabbed a typically stylish brace in that game, with the reigning Spanish champions tipped to retain their crown this season.
Ronaldinho becomes the third Brazilian to win the award since 1997, with Rivaldo picking up the prize in 1999 and Ronaldo voted top player in European football twice (1997 and 2002).
BEST TRIBUTE
The evening featured a tribute and standing ovation to recently deceased 1968 winner George Best, with a re-presentation of the award made to former team-mates Sir Bobby Charlton and Denis Law on behalf of Best's mourning family.
"He was a wonderful player who had the spirit of the game in mind." said an emotional Charlton.
"He would have loved to have been here tonight, thank you for your tribute tonight", continued his former Manchester United team-mate.
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