Cristiano Ronaldo has won the 2008 Ballon D’Or award by an overwhelming margin. Ronaldo comfortably beat his main rivals Messi and is now the fourth Manchester United player (after Law, Charlton and Best) and the first England-based player since Michael Owen to win the France Football award.

The Ballon D’Or will go nicely with his UEFA MVP and FIFPro World Player of the Year awards, and now all eyes are on the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year award, one that he is again expected to win.

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2008 Ballon d’Or Top Ten:

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Manchester United) – 446 points

2. Lionel Messi (Argentina/Barcelona) – 281 pts

3. Fernando Torres (Spain/Liverpool) – 179 pts

4. Iker Casillas (Spain/Real Madrid) – 133 pts

5. Xavi Hernandez (Spain/Barcelona) – 97 pts

6. Andrei Arshavin (Russia/Zenit St. Petersburg) – 64 pts

7. David Villa (Spain/Valencia) – 55 pts

8. Kaka (Brazil/AC Milan) – 31 pts

9. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden/Inter) – 30 pts

10. Steven Gerrard (England/Liverpool) – 28 pts

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Ballon D’Or 2008 Nominees

The Ballon D’Or shortlist for 2008 comprises of 30 footballers who have excelled in their performances for club and country over the previous season.

The award is presented by France Football magazine and the winner is selected on December 2 when 96 journalists from around the world cast their vote in a poll to determine who was the best performer in the 2007/2008 season.

Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Togo

Sergio Agüero (Atletico Madrid), Argentina

Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St. Petersburg), Russia

Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Germany

Karim Benzema (Lyon), France

Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Italy

Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Spain

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Portugal

Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Ivory Coast

Samuel Eto’o (FC Barcelona), Cameroon

Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Spain

Fernando Torres (Liverpool FC), Spain

Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC), England

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan), Sweden

Kaka (AC Milan), Brazil

Frank Lampard (Chelsea), England

Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona), Argentina

Pepe (Real Madrid), Portugal

Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich), France

Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), England

Marcos Senna (Villarreal), Spain

Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Spain

Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Italy

Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United), Netherlands

Rafael van der Vaart (Hamburg SV/Real Madrid), Netherlands

Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), Netherlands

Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), Serbia

David Villa (Valencia CF), Spain

Xavi (FC Barcelona), Spain

Youri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), Russia

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are expected to slug it out for the eventual honour – everyone has their favourites so tell us about them below and for fun, pick a winner from the list above if Ronaldo and Messi were not in contention.

Excellent comparison of the performances of Ronaldo, Messi and Torres in the last year.

Paul Doyle puts ‘Player of the Year’ awards in their right place.

While we’re at it, vote for your 2008 Footballer of the Year.