From Dubai yet another confirmation: whoever wins in the Emirates wins around the globe.

Once again Spain makes the headlines at the seventh edition of the Awards. After Real Madrid in 2014, with Florentino Perez, Carlo Ancelotti, Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez; Barcelona in 2015, with President Bartomeu and Lionel Messi; again Real Madrid in 2016, with the Awards to the President, the team and Cristiano Ronaldo, the great star. Real Madrid and Barcelona, champions of Europe and the world over the last three years, have both claimed the Globe Soccer Award.

This time Cristiano Ronaldo made a clean sweep: European champion with both his club and his country, world champion with Real Madrid, the Ballon d’Or, Globe Soccer Award and The Best FIFA Award, in a single season topped off with a Super Cup too. The Portuguese star gave us tears and triumph in Paris and managed to achieve for his country what had been beyond the other star of Portuguese football, Eusebio. In the history of football, 2016 will go down as a key year for CR7.
Rightly celebrated among the coaches was Fernando Santos, the coach of the Portuguese national team, for the same result achieved together with Cristiano at the Euro 2016 in France.

Mark Clattenburg, who was also in Paris for the final between Portugal and France, received the Globe Soccer Award as the best referee of 2016, after taking charge of the two great finals of European football.

Career Awards for Javier Zanetti and Samuel Eto’o. For Mohamed Salah, as best Arab player of the year, for the captain of China Zheng Zhi, as the best Chinese player thanks to the public votes collected on the digital platform Sina Sports. A special award to Unai Emery, the three-time champion in the Europa League with Seville. An Award to Mino Raiola as the best agent of the year, the first who managed to break the hegemony of Jorge Mendes thanks to the great Paul Pogba deal with his transfer from Juventus to Manchester United.

Important Awards for Al Hilal and Omar Abdulrahman, respectively winners of the award for best club and best player
in the GCC, thanks to the public votes del Euro 2016 in France collected through Kooora’s digital platform, and for MP&Silva judged the Best Sports Media Agency in the Award sponsored by Dubai TV.

The Awards gala proceeded with three young stars: the trio of “Il Volo” sang and gave us an incredible performance of “Nessun Dorma” and “Grande Amore”, thus reinforcing the strong bond between music and football, celebrated over the years by artists of the calibre of Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras, as well as Bocelli.

The award candidates have been chosen by the Globe Soccer jury, which includes international footballing coaches, directors and chairmans. As every year, the shortlists for the awards for best club of the year have been drawn up by the European Club Association.