Guardian goes for Ronaldo over Messi as 2014's best player

British newspaper The Guardian has givenCristiano Ronaldothe nod ahead of Leo Messi as the best player in the world in 2014.

Since December 2012 the paper has compiled an annual list of the 100 top players in the year gone by. On this occasion, a 73-strong panel hailing from 28 countries cast close to 3,000 votes on the way to drawing up the rankings, and CR7 came out clearly on top.

According to The Guardian, "What is certain is that taking the year as a whole Ronaldo has been the single dominant figure, a phenomenal influence in the world's champion club team, with 56 goals in 51 matches overall, along with league title, Champions League and Club World Club medals for Real Madrid".

Some 74% of the experts on the jury voted for Cristiano as their no. 1 pick, meaning the Portugal captain comprehensively dethroned Messi, who had topped the list for the previous two years. In 2013 the Barcelona talisman captured 60% of the votes as the world's best player, while incredibly in 2012 his case was backed by every single one of the experts involved.

This time around, however, only 12% named the Argentine on top, despite Messi "continuing to perform miracles of incision in La Liga", as the paper's summary put it.

Four other players were nominated as the world's best player by at least one member of the panel: Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, a Ballon d'Or candidate, got 8% of the votes; his fellow German and teammate, Thomas Müller, got 4%; while Juventus and France midfielder Paul Pogba joined another Bayern star, Arjen Robben, with a vote each.

Source - Marca English Version