Cristiano Ronaldo left Lionel Messi behind and won the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or. This is the first time the Portuguese football icon was declared as the world player of the year since 2008. The other contender who was also in a close race with Ronaldo and Messi was Franck Ribery, the French midfielder.

Ronaldo, now 28, was chosen as the top performer in football by national captains, coaches and journalists. Brazilian football legend Pele, who won the Ballon d'Or Prix d'Honneur, earlier predicted that Ronaldo would win the world player award for the year 2013.

Pele's prediction turned out to be true as Ronaldo stopped Argentine great Messi's extraordinary run of winning the title for supposedly the fifth time in a row. Messi won title four times consecutively between 2009 and 2012. Ronaldo had a fabulous year in 2013 as he played in 56 games to score 66 goals for his country Portugal and club Real Madrid. He also scored a hat trick for his country against Sweden in the second leg of Portugal's World Cup qualifying play off. It eventually secured Portugal's place in the next football world cup to be help in Brazil in 2014.

Ronaldo expressed his happiness and pride on winning the title. He tweeted, "Very proud to win the Ballon d'Or for the second time, it means so much to me. I thank my teammates." Earlier in the ceremony, he thanked his wife, his friends and his son. He called the moment of winning the best footballer in the world award as "tremendously emotional."

The women's world player of the year award went to Nadine Angerer, the German goalkeeper who saved a couple of penalties to take her team to the final of the European championship. Meanwhile, Jupp Heynckes, former Bayern Munich coach, was chosen as the coach of the year.

Here is the FIFA World Team of the Year:

Manuel Neuer, Dani Alves, Thiago Silva, Sergio Ramos, Philipp Lahm, Andres Iniesta, Franck Ribery, Xavi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lionel Messi.