Ronaldo is the best footballer in the world, he deserves the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award!

If he wins, Cristiano Ronaldo will be the first footballer to win the Laureus World Sportmans of the Year award.

Last year, when the Portugal football team played their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Sweden, the whole world expected the match to be a do or die for both the teams. And none other than the superstar Cristiano Ronaldo single-handedly took the Portuguese team to Brazil by scoring a blistering hat-trick.

Ronaldo’s exploits on the pitch in 2013, where he scored 68 goals for both his country (Portugal) and his club (Real Madrid), saw him walk away with the most coveted trophy in Football – the Ballon D’Or 2013 (FIFA Best Player of the Year) for the second time in his career.

Cristiani Ronaldo won the 2013 Ballon D'Or. Photo: Reuters

Now he has been nominated for the prestigious Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award for the year 2014. Laureus is now celebrating its 15^th year and is recognised as the premier honour event in the international sporting calendar.

No footballer has ever won the Laureus Sportsman of the Year award. Ronaldo can only win this award if he manages to shrug off the competition from his fellow nominees.

Usain Bolt – Jamaica



Bolt is the world’s fastest man and greatest sprinter of all time. He won three gold medals at last year’s International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Championship in Moscow and he was named IAAF’s Male Athlete of the Year for the fifth time.

Mo Farah – United Kingdom



This British athlete is one of the greatest distance runners who won the classic 5,000 and 10,000 metres double in the World Champion.

LeBron James – United States



James has won National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the fourth consecutive time in the last five years.

Rafael Nadal – Spain



The tennis sensation has won the French Open for a record eighth time and the US Open, regaining his top of the list world ranking.

Sebastian Vettel – Germany



Vettle is one of the greatest drivers of all time and won four consecutive Formula 1 World Championships.

The nominations follow a ballot by the world’s media and the winners are voted by the Laureus World sports academy, which is made up of 46 of the greatest sportspersons of all time.

Ronaldo’s opponents are not by the slightest chance easy to conquer. However, considering history, Usain Bolt has won this award three times, including last year’s triumph.

Thus, Ronaldo faces stiff competition from other sports fraternities that have always dominated these awards. Tiger Woods has won this award twice for his Golfing techniques, Michael Schumacher for Formula 1 while Roger Federer has won it four times for tennis.

It’s difficult but not an impossible challenge for the Portuguese star who was recently named Grand Officer of the Order of Prince Henry, one of the most prestigious honours in Portugal by the country’s President.

Cristiano Ronaldo getting the Grand Officer of the Order of Prince Henry honour. Photo: Reuters

In 2013, he was Spanish League’s second highest goal scorer and UEFA Champions League’s highest goal scorer. His superb technical skill, unmatched speed, blistering runs down the wings, and his predatory and accurate shoots to score a goal makes him the best football player in the world.

 

Photo: AFP

With so many accolades in his possession for the year 2013 alone, will he break the jinx and become the first football player to add the tag of world’s best sportsman?

I guess we will find out two days from now when the awards ceremony will take place in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lampur, on March 26, 2014.