{"id":424,"date":"2014-01-14T00:54:11","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T00:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=424"},"modified":"2014-01-14T03:15:06","modified_gmt":"2014-01-14T03:15:06","slug":"ronaldo-breaks-the-jinx-wins-ballon-dor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/ronaldo-breaks-the-jinx-wins-ballon-dor\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo Breaks the Jinx, Wins Ballon D&#8217;or"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-font-charset:78;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";\n\tpanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\n\tmso-font-charset:0;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:Cambria;\n\tpanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\n\tmso-font-charset:0;\n\tmso-generic-font-family:auto;\n\tmso-font-pitch:variable;\n\tmso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}\n \/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n\t{mso-style-unhide:no;\n\tmso-style-qformat:yes;\n\tmso-style-parent:\"\";\n\tmargin:0in;\n\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\n\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\n\tfont-size:12.0pt;\n\tfont-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\np.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing\n\t{mso-style-priority:1;\n\tmso-style-unhide:no;\n\tmso-style-qformat:yes;\n\tmso-style-parent:\"\";\n\tmargin:0in;\n\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\n\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\n\tfont-size:12.0pt;\n\tfont-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n\t{mso-style-type:export-only;\n\tmso-default-props:yes;\n\tfont-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\n\tmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\n\tmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\n\tmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\n\tmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n@page WordSection1\n\t{size:8.5in 11.0in;\n\tmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;\n\tmso-header-margin:.5in;\n\tmso-footer-margin:.5in;\n\tmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n\t{page:WordSection1;}\n--><\/style>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\">Real Madrid stinker Cristiano Ronaldo has finally beaten Barcelona&#8217;s Lionel Messi to win the FIFA Ballon d&#8217;Or for the first time since 2008.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\">The Portugal captain pulled a total of 1,365 points, ahead of Messi (1,205), while Ribery claimed (1,127) to win the third place.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p>In what looks like a two horse race between Ronaldo and Messi since 2008, the Argentine had beaten 28-year-old Ronaldo to the award on four previous occasions,<\/p>\n<p>However, Ronaldo had been tipped to win the 2013 award following his outstanding performance, scoring 66 goals in 56 games in that year&#8217;s FIFA calendar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\">It would be recalled that the former Manchester United winger&#8217;s hat-trick for his country against Sweden help Portugal reach this year&#8217;s World Cup finals in Brazil.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>-Demola Aluko<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Real Madrid stinker Cristiano Ronaldo has finally beaten Barcelona&#8217;s Lionel Messi to win the FIFA Ballon d&#8217;Or for the first time since 2008.\u00a0 The Portugal captain pulled a total of 1,365 points, ahead of Messi (1,205), while Ribery claimed (1,127) to win the third place.\u00a0 In what looks like a two horse race between Ronaldo [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[85,60],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}