Cristiano Ronaldo has been awarded the FIFA Ballon d'Or for the second year running and the third time overall after a prolific, trophy-filled year with Real Madrid.
He was voted ahead of Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi, his bitter rival, and Bayern Munich and Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, in the annual poll run jointly by soccer's governing body and France Football magazine.
Joachim Loew was voted Coach of the Year after leading Germany to the World Cup in Brazil. He finished ahead of Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti and Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone in the poll.
Ronaldo netted 51 goals in 47 appearances last season as Real secured a record-extending tenth Champions League title and won the King's Cup.
His tally included 17 goals in the Champions League, a record for a single edition of a Europe's elite club competition.
Since then, he has added the Club World Cup title to his collection, netted a stunning 26 goals in 17 La Liga matches and looks set to looks on track to smash the biggest total for a season in Spain's top flight of 50 scored by Messi in 2011-12.
All that was enough to overlook a disappointing World Cup for Ronaldo, where Portugal went out in the first round.
However, he still became Portugal's all-time leading scorer and his goal haul for his country stands at 52 in 117 appearances.
Messi, by contrast, inspired Argentina as they reached the World Cup final, where they lost to Neuer's Germany.
Ronaldo first won the award in 2008, when it was run solely by FIFA, and he finished ahead of Messi.
Messi won the award four times in-a-row from 2009 to 2012, with Ronaldo finishing as runner-up on three occasions, before the Portuguese reversed the trend last year.
"It has been an unforgettable year and to win a trophy of this kind is something unique,” Ronaldo said.
"I want to continue working as I have so far to go on to win more titles as an individual and in a team.
"Of course this is something that is always with me. I want to become one of the greatest players of all time and this requires a lot of effort but I hope to get there."
Ronaldo was a clear winner with 37.66% of total votes cast by a panel made up of captains, coaches and media members from all FIFA affiliate associations. Messi took second with 15.76%, just ahead of Neuer on 15.72%.
England manager Roy Hodgson left both Ronaldo and Messi out of his own top three, voting instead for Argentina's Javier Mascherano ahead of Germany pair Philipp Lahm and Neuer.
Earlier, Messi responded to continuing transfer rumours by stressing he would like to end his career at Barcelona - but conceded that outcome was far from certain.
Having denounced talk of a move to the Barclays Premier League as "lies" earlier this week, Messi added on Monday: "I'm not sure where I'm going to be next year.
"I've always said I would like to finish my career at Barcelona... nobody knows what the future holds, much less so in the case of the football world, where so many things can change overnight."
Ballon d'Or: Cristiano Ronaldo
Women's World Player of the Year: Nadine Kessler
Puskas Award: James Rodriguez
World Coach of the Year for men's football: Joachim Low
World Coach of the Year for women's football: Ralf Kellermann
World XI: Neuer; Lahm, Ramos, David Luiz, Thiago Silva; Di Maria, Iniesta, Kroos; Messi, Ronaldo, Robben
FIFA Presidential Award: Hiroshi Kagawa
FIFA Fair Play Award: FIFA volunteers
