Cristiano Ronaldo, Claudio Ranieri, Leicester City Win World Soccer Awards 2016

Cristiano Ronaldo has won World Soccer's World Player of the Year award following his phenomenal achievements for club and country in 2016.

The 31-year-old lifted the European Championship trophy as Portugal captain in July, just two months after playing a starring role in Real Madrid's Champions League triumph.

Leicester City have also been honoured for their sensational 2015-16 Premier League season, scooping two World Soccer awards. A panel of 100 journalists and pundits chose the English champions as Team of the Year and Claudio Ranieri as Manager of the Year.

This was the fourth time that Ronaldo has won the award, following his triumphs in 2008, 2013 and 2014, drawing him level with Lionel Messi's record haul. This year's poll was particularly close, with Ronaldo beating Messi by just 130 votes despite scoring the winning penalty in the Champions League final against Atletico Madrid.

Antonio Calanni/Associated Press

Messi's inferior national achievements—his Argentina side lost the Copa America final to Chile in June —are probably why he was pipped by his rival. Messi has 55 goals and 32 assists in 54 matches for club and country so far this calendar year, compared with Ronaldo's 51 goals and 17 assists in 53 games.

The top five was completed by Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale, all of whom enjoyed excellent years both at club level and at international tournaments.

The table below shows the full voting breakdown of the top 10:

Rank	Name	Votes
1st	Cristiano Ronaldo	842
2nd	Lionel Messi	712
3rd	Antoine Griezmann	559
4th	Luis Suarez	498
5th	Gareth Bale	497
6th	Neymar	405
7th	Riyad Mahrez	134
8th	Robert Lewandowski	117
9th	N'Golo Kante	93
10th	Jamie Vardy	87

The other two awards were not so hotly contested. Leicester and Ranieri comfortably won their respective categories following the Foxes' astonishing title triumph last season, despite a poor start to 2016-17. The Foxes overcame 5000-1 odds to lift the title in 2015-16 having dramatically escaped relegation in the final few weeks of the previous campaign.

Few had expected Ranieri, who was appointed in July 2015, to be a success following a disastrous spell in charge of the Greece national team, as highlighted by this famous tweet from Gary Lineker:

Portugal and their head coach Fernando Santos finished second in both Team and Manager of the Year categories, in recognition of their unexpected Euro 2016 win.

Only time will tell if the World Soccer awards are an indication of what is to come in the Ballon d'Or voting on January 11, 2016. Ronaldo has risen above Messi on this occasion, but he has two fewer Ballon d'Or awards than the Argentinian. Portugal's and Real Madrid's success in 2016 suggests he might just close the gap by winning the major gong.