Cristiano Ronaldo is widely considered to be the most famous sportsman alive today. Forbes declared him the world’s highest earning current athlete. He has five Ballon d’Or awards, the most ever by a European. And now, today, another honor, courtesy of the Manchester United supporters, who named him the club’s best player of the Premier League era, via a poll on the club website.
United brought Ronaldo up from Sporting CP in 2003, and then sold him to Real Madrid in 2009. During his time at Old Trafford, he made a major impact, and the fans took note as CR7 beat out runner-up Ryan Giggs and third place finisher Paul Scholes.
United’s all-time leading scorer, Wayne Rooney, failed to crack the top three. Rooney did however win for best goal of the Premier League era (1992-present) for his amazing bicycle kick in the 2010-11 home edition of the Manchester derby.
David de Gea, in his stop of a Juan Mata free kick during the 2011-12 visit to Chelsea, was voted best save while a 2009-10 edition of the Manchester Derby that United won 4-3 was the fans’ choice for best game.
For more on the poll, specific votes and percentages, and to see more runner-up and third place finishers, go to this link on the club’s official website.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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