Real Madrid's Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo has been named as the world’s best footballer of 2014 in an annual ranking released by The Guardian, a British newspaper, Thursday (local time).
Ronaldo beat FC Barcelona's Argentine striker Lionel Messi in the list of 2014 world's top 100 footballers chosen by a judging panel consisting of 73 experts from 28 countries. Messi has taken the top spot for the past two years.
Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller and Arjen Robben, all of them play for Bayern Munich, were ranked third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Bayer Leverkusen's South Korean attacker Son Heung-min and Al Ain's Ghanaian forward Asamoah Gyan were tied for 110th. Son was the highest-placed Asian footballer in the ranking. Shinji Okazaki, a Japanese who currently plays for Mainz 05, ranked 116th.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
