Ron in world's best shocker!

Last November Cristiano Ronaldo was asked who he thought were the three best players in football, to which he smugly replied: "I am the first, the second and the third best player in the world."

After his amazing form in the past season, it was so obvious that the Manchester United winger would be named Fifa World Footballer of the Year for 2008 on Monday that they really could have done away with the whole "suspense-filled" drawing a name out of an envelope routine, and saved on stationery in these troubled times

But, then again, this is Fifa after all. The same organisation that, when announcing the hosts of the 2014 World Cup (a tournament that had only one candidate), held a glorious ceremony and had president Sepp Blatter opening an envelope to coyly pull out the name 'Brazil' from inside. Wow, what a big surprise!

Ronaldo's stunning performances and his 42 goals, which helped United win Premier League and Champions League titles, have been well scripted and it reaped him 935 points in the vote. Barcelona's Lionel Messi finished in second (678 points), followed by Liverpool's Fernando Torres (203) and AC Milan's Kaka (183).

In keeping with the Fifa tradition, the point system adds a bit off excessiveness to the whole situation. It is as if they are trying to make it seem that there were more voters then there actually are or, they making as if the votes were closer than they probably were.

In reality the coaches and captains of 155 national teams took part with each voter getting three votes; worth five points, three and one respectively – thus giving the Red Devils star the award.

The way Ronaldo is playing this season, he is unlikely to make it to Zurich next time. Mind you, he nearly never made it to this year's bash though when he crashed his two-day old Dh1.16 million Ferrari into a wall last Thursday.

Meanwhile, the longest standing transfer saga between Ronaldo and Real Madrid continued this week after reports emerged that the midfielder's lawyers had registered the trademark "CR9" in Portugal.

He already has a 'CR7' trademark representing his initials and his shirt number at United, but by now also securing the No9, it "proves" that he will be heading to Spain next season – according to reports.

Raul wears the No7 shirt so Ron would be forced to don No9 should he join Madrid and it's rumoured he is looking to the future.

It's all too complicated to follow really, so let's skip to a story that's more straightforward.

It took Manchester City two weeks, but they finally seem to be getting a hang of this transfer business. After coming into the January transfer window with an "unlimited" budget, they've only signed one player – Chelsea reserve Wayne Bridge for an overpriced £12m (Dh64m).

On Wednesday though they stepped up their game by putting in a tempting £100m bid for Kaka (Now that's what everyone was waiting to see).

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