As expected, Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo won Ballon D'Or 2016 as the world's best player on Monday. The Real Madrid attacker claimed his fourth title by beating his arch rival Lionel Messi (Argentina-Barcelona), and an emerging star such as Antoine Griezmann (France-Atletico Madrid) by gaining 745 points.

Previously, Ronaldo won Ballon d'Or in 2008, 2013, and 2014. While Messi has clinched the title five times. Both players are competing fiercely in La Liga and the classic match called "El Classico"is the world's most anticipated soccer game. Forbes estimated that the match attracts 400 million viewers worldwide, making in the world's richest soccer match.

Ronaldo helped Madrid win the Champions League before lifting the Euro trophy for his country in France this year. The 2016 Euro trophy was the first national title for Ronaldo and few expected that Portugal would win the tournament, based on the unsatisfactory results in the group stage.

Griezmann has been one of the most dangerous attackers in La Liga since the past few seasons. But he failed to help his club and country win the trophy, despite his incredible performance at home during the 2016 Euro with France national team.

While Messi won two domestic titles with Barcelona but failed again to help his country win international titles following Argentina's second consecutive defeat against Chile in two Copa America finals (2015 and the Copa America Centenario 2016). In both occasions, Chile beat Argentina on a penalty shoot-out.

Since 2008, Ronaldo and Messi have been dominating Ballon D'Or. Kaka (Brazil) was the last player who won the award in 2007 before the dominance of Ronaldo-Messi began.

World's soccer fans will have these questions in mind: Can Ronaldo's victory mark the end of Messi's era? Or will the dominance of Ronaldo-Messi be over in 2017? If not both of them, who will deserve Ballon d'Or in 2017, given there are lots of star-quality players across the world?

It is too premature to predict their future as the year of 2016 ends. However, it seems that the voting system will change as France Football will take control of the voting system, as reported by Bleacher Report. It means that only votes of journalists will be counted, skipping votes coming from international soccer coaches and captains.

If this system had been applied previously, Ronaldo and Messi wouldn't have had been so dominant.

For example, Wesley Sneijder could have clinched the Ballon d'Or trophy in 2010 if only votes from journalists had been counted. Sneijder-who at that time was playing for Inter Milan-had been showing his best performance in Serie A and his national team. He won three titles with Internazionale and helped the Netherlands become the 2010 World Cup's runner-up.

Some also questioned why Messi's teammates in Barcelona Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez had never won the award, despite helping the Spain national team win the Euro twice (2008 and 2012) and the World Cup (2010).

In 2017, football journalists are expected to make an objective decision as no big tournaments held in Europe and South America. Then, who will deserve the world's best player title?

Some names emerge. Messi's Barcelona teammate Luis Suarez can be one of the most potential candidates, with the Golden Shoe in the 2015-2016 season with 40 goals. Other candidates from La Liga can be Neymar (Brazil-Barcelona), Bale, and Griezmann.

From Premier League, some will see how English clubs are doing in the Champions League. Arsenal will have to face Bayern Munchen in this season's 16 round and Manchester City will play against AS Monaco and Leicester City will face La Liga's Sevilla. Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Oezil might come as strong contenders, or maybe with City's Sergio Aguero.

It is too early to tell that the debutant Leicester City will have its star Jamie Vardy as the strong candidate to win Ballon d'Or. But, maybe someday? Who knows?

Will La Liga's dominance end? Will Ballon d'Or go to Premiere League? Or Bundesliga with the outstanding performance of Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munchen) and Pierre Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund)? Or Serie A with Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus)?


Hope to see a surprise in 2017!

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