CRISTIANO RONALDO LEVELS UP WITH LEONEL MESSI TO WIN THE BALLON D`OR

Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon d'Or for a fifth time to move level with rival Lionel Messi.

The Real Madrid forward was named the winner of France Football's prestigious award at a ceremony in Paris on Thursday.

The award caps a year in which Ronaldo has won LaLiga, the Champions League and the Spanish Super Cup with Real Madrid, as well as helping Portugal qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

Here's who else has won in years gone by:

List of previous winners

1956 Stanley Matthews

1957 Alfredo Di Stefano

1958 Raymond Kopa

1959 Alfredo Di Stefano

1960 Luis Suarez

1961 Omar Sivori

1962 Josef Masopust

1963 Lev Yashin

1964 Denis Law

1965 Eusebio

1966 Bobby Charlton

1967 Florian Albert

1968 George Best

1969 Gianni Rivera

1970 Gerd Muller

1971 Johan Cruyff

1972 Franz Beckenbauer

1973 Johan Cruyff

1974 Johan Cruyff

1975 Oleg Blokhin

1976 Franz Beckenbauer

1977 Allan Simonsen

1978 Kevin Keegan

1979 Kevin Keegan

1980 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

1981 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

1982 Paolo Rossi

1983 Michel Platini

1984 Michel Platini

1985 Michel Platini

1986 Igor Belanov

1987 Ruud Gullit

1988 Marco van Basten

1989 Marco van Basten

1990 Lothar Matthaus

1991 Jean-Pierre Papin

1992 Marco van Basten

1993 Roberto Baggio

1994 Hristo Stoichkov

1995 George Weah

1996 Matthias Sammer

1997 Ronaldo

1998 Zinedine Zidane

1999 Rivldo

2000 Luis Figo

2001 Michael Owen

2002 Ronaldo

2003 Pavel Nedved

2004 Andriy Shevchenko

2005 Ronaldinho

2006 Fabio Cannavaro

2007 Kaka

2008 Cristiano Ronaldo

2009 Lionel Messi

2010 Lionel Messi

2011 Lionel Messi

2012 Lionel Messi

2013 Cristiano Ronaldo

2014 Cristiano Ronaldo 

2015 Lionel Messi

2016 Cristiano Ronaldo

2017 Cristiano Ronaldo