Cristiano Ronaldo has never hidden the fact that his hunger for trophies extends beyond team honors to the individual awards handed out every season. It will not have escaped his attention that he is 90 minutes away from winning not just the Champions League but also making himself the clear favorite for the Ballon d'Or for another season - his fifth, drawing him level with Lionel Messi. Saturday's final Champions League in Cardiff represents a playoff between the two main candidates for the Golden Ball award this season. If Juventus win the final then goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon can expect to pick up what would be his first as the keeper of the treble winners. If Real Madrid win the game then Ronaldo is likely to be crowned the world's best by France Football at the end of the season. Ronaldo's late-season form in the Champions League has powered Madrid into their second straight final. He scored eight of the 10 goals the team managed in the quarter and semi-finals against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid respectively.
He also became the first player to go through the 100 goals barrier in the competition this season and told Uefa.com: "It was a target that I wanted to reach. I went a couple of games without scoring that made it more difficult but I always thought I would be the first to reach 100 goals."
Having been the first to clock up a century of goals ahead of Messi and being on the brink of reaching the same amount of Ballon d'Or awards as his rival is a reflection of how strongly Ronaldo has come back in their ding-dong personal duel. A recognition that he needs to sit games out from time to time and slightly changing his position on the pitch have been credited, in part, for his fine season.
"What I most like is to have the freedom in attack and [Zinedine] Zidane has given me that. Sometimes in the middle, sometimes wide," he said of his position in Real Madrid's attack.
And when asked by Uefa.com about him resting more this season he said: "In the last two years I have tended to be tired in the last bit of the season, so this year I rested and feel a lot better for the run-in."
Despite feeling tired at the end of the last campaign and eventually getting injured in the Euro 2016 final he still played a big part in Portugal winning the tournament in France. If, a year on from that success, he can win his second consecutive Champions League it will have been his greatest year at the age of 32. Not many commentators expected his excellence to be quite so enduring. Part of his durability comes form his ability to find new barriers and break through them.
Right on cue another possible first comes into focus: If Ronaldo scores in the final on Saturday he will be the first player in the modern Champions League era to score in three finals He scored for Manchester United against Chelsea in 2008 and for Real Madrid in 2014. That would be another first he reaches ahead of Messi.
