Ronaldo tipped to end Messi's reign as the world's best player
Cristiano Ronaldo is heavily favoured to end Lionel Messi's four-year reign as the world's best player on Monday.
Ronaldo's prolific tally of 69 goals for Real Madrid and Portugal seems likely to earn his second Fifa award after finishing runner-up three times in Messi's dominating era.
Franck Ribery is the third candidate, but the Bayern Munich and France winger needs to score a major upset to add the Fifa accolade to Uefa's Best Player in Europe award, which he collected in August.
Every year I show what I'm about. I've scored 40 or 50 goals a season and that's not enough for everyone
A Ronaldo victory is expected because of Fifa's announcement after the World Cup play-offs in November to extend the voting deadline by two weeks.
That brought his inspiring performance and hat-trick for Portugal in Stockholm, completing a 4-2 aggregate win to eliminate Zlatan Ibrahimvic and Sweden, into the calculations.
"I did my job as I have been doing all season," Ronaldo said following the match. "Every year I show what I'm about. I've scored 40 or 50 goals a season and that's not enough for everyone." Messi, who got 45 goals for Barcelona and Argentina, was unable to further his case after being ruled out of action by a third injury last year.
Fifa also allowed the voting college - national team captains and coaches, plus one journalist, from each of world soccer's 209 member countries - to change preferences and submit new ballot papers.