Ronaldo

The trio were the last three standing following a vote by a jury comprising the coaches of the 80 clubs from last season's Champions League and Europa League, as well as 55 journalists representing UEFA's member associations.

Modric and Ronaldo – who has taken the honour in the last two years – won the Champions League for the third season in a row with Real Madrid last term, with the Portugal star, now at Juventus, finishing as top scorer in the competition for the sixth year running.

A recording of Simeone stating his preference for Ronaldo emerged in the aftermath of Argentina's shock 3-0 loss to Croatia at the World Cup.

But the Atletico Madrid head coach has now affirmed his belief that Barcelona ace Messi is the standout of the pair, on the condition he is surrounded by top talent.

The Argentina captain, Simeone reasons, would struggle to match Ronaldo's output among lesser team-mates.

"If I had to choose between Messi and Ronaldo then most likely I would choose Messi," Simeone told reporters.

The end of Ronaldo's nine-year stay at Madrid was announced on Tuesday by Madrid, with the 33-year-old explaining in an open letter he wants to start a "new cycle" in his career.

Juventus have now confirmed details of the deal, with Madrid to receive €100m for the record goalscorer in the club's history.

Ronaldo hit 450 goals for Madrid, helping the club to win four Champions League titles in the last five seasons.

Ronaldo, who joined Real from Manchester United in 2008 for a then world record 156 million dollars, is the Spanish club's all-time top scorer with 451 goals in all competitions and has won two La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies with them.

Despite the glut of silverware, however, the five-times world player of the year has had frequent fallouts with Real and has declared on several occasions that he wants to leave the club.

Ronaldo was powerless to stop European champions Portugal exiting Russia 2018 on Saturday as Edinson Cavani's brace sent Uruguay into the quarter-finals.

That meant Ronaldo and his great rival Lionel Messi, whose Argentina side lost 4-2 to France, were both knocked out of what could be their final World Cup on the same day.

Ronaldo opted not to discuss his future in the aftermath of the defeat, although Portugal coach Fernando Santos said he hopes the Real Madrid superstar will be available for the start of the Nations League in September.

The Real Madrid superstar headed an early winner as Portugal edged out Morocco on Wednesday, putting the Euro 2016 champions within a point of qualifying for the knockout stages.

Following his hat-trick in Friday's pulsating 3-3 Group B draw with Spain, Ronaldo is leading the race to win the World Cup Golden Boot.

Ronaldo displayed new facial hair for the game and revealed the inspiration for the goatee in his post-match press conference.

Portugal's captain said: "This goatee? It's a joke I had with [Ricardo] Quaresma. 

The 33-year-old was accused last year of evading €14.7million in taxes relating to his image rights between 2011 and 2014.

According to reports in Spain on Monday, Ronaldo's legal team made a settlement offer of €3.8m, plus admission of wrongdoing, which was rejected by the country's tax authorities.

The Portugal international appeared in court last year to respond to the allegations, insisting "I always pay what I have to pay; I do things the right way and I will continue to do so". His representatives, Gestifute, have also persistently denied any wrongdoing.

The Portuguese netted for the eighth game in a row in all competitions, while it was the fourth league outing in succession in which he has found the net at least twice.

A quiet start to 2017-18 saw Ronaldo score just four LaLiga goals before the turn of the year but since late January he has been virtually unstoppable, this stunning display at the Santiago Bernabeu taking his tally to 21 in his past 11 outings across domestic and continental competitions.

Ronaldo provided the assist for Lucas Vazquez's first-minute goal in a comfortable victory at the Santiago Bernabeu, going on to score his first Madrid treble of the campaign.

The Portugal superstar tucked away Marcelo's cutback with a firm right-footed finish to add Madrid's second and he was on target again before the break by heading in Luka Modric's right-wing corner.

And with Zinedine Zidane leaving his talismanic forward on for the full 90 minutes despite the looming clash with PSG, he wrapped up his hat-trick with 10 minutes to go.

The 32-year-old is behind Manchester United's Anthony Martial and Manchester City's Nicolas Otamendi in the table and one place ahead of Monaco's Fabinho.

Neymar is top of the list of the top 100 most valuable footballers, compiled by the CIES Football Observatory, ahead of Lionel Messi in second and Harry Kane in third.

The annual assessment of players in Europe's top five leagues takes into account a variety of factors, including age, position, contract duration, performance and international status.