No contest: Why Ronaldo's cemented No. 1 status in 2016

Make no mistake: Cristiano Ronaldo is now the world's best player.

There's no disputing the Real Madrid and Portugal superstar has enjoyed the best year of his career. Winning both the Champions League and Euro 2016, the 31-year-old bagged the continent's most prestigious hardware and put up numbers that a rare few in football history could rival.

With 51 goals and counting across the calendar year, Ronaldo's managed to turn criticism into praise.

He joined Michel Platini as the joint-top scorer in the European Championships with nine goals, set a Madrid derby record with 18 tallies, and hammered home the winning penalty in Milan.

The spotlight doesn't find Ronaldo; it's him who finds it.

Related: Ronaldo, Messi, Griezmann finalists for Best FIFA Men's Player award

All of his extracurricular activities - the luxury hotel, the fragrances, the underwear line - make him a target of contempt. It's just too easy to chastise a world-renowned athlete for building up a brand. The truth is none of it would be possible without his unyielding desire to win, and it all came together in 2016.

Even though Ronaldo didn't score in either final - and rarely played in Paris at all after succumbing to a knee injury - he put his teammates in a position to go all the way. His second-half brace against Hungary salvaged what could've been a disastrous group stage in France, and his leaping header in the semi-final halted Wales' fairy-tale run.

Then there was the near-calamitous quarter-final exit from the Champions League, a catastrophe reversed by Ronaldo's emphatic hat trick against Wolfsburg at the Santiago Bernabeu.

He often suffers the accusation that he only scores on the lesser sides, in matches against the likes of Malmo and Osasuna.

That argument conveniently ignores the fact he's so consistent. Six consecutive years with 50 or more goals don't happen by coincidence, or playing bottom feeders. He accomplished that feat in November, adding more to his legacy.

"I don't doubt I will go down in footballing history," he told UEFA.com in May. "Whether people like it or not, the numbers speak for themselves."

Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann are, technically speaking, Ronaldo's two competitors to be named Best FIFA Men’s Player of 2016, but they're really not. Messi's struggled through too many injuries, and while Griezmann's established himself as a household name over the past 12 months, he's still not anywhere close to the talisman Ronaldo is.

It's harsh to rule out Messi and Griezmann because they didn't win international trophies - the Frenchman was, after all, named Euro 2016 Player of the Tournament - but it's fair to distinguish Ronaldo as a greater overall participant in his teams' success. Luis Suarez had a better club season than Messi, and Griezmann's Atletico Madrid is much more about the collective effort under gregarious manager Diego Simeone.

Ronaldo's the driving force behind both Madrid and Portugal. Though he played no part in the final against France, he proved on the sidelines how much of an influence he has. Remonstrating and barking out instructions, he became Portugal's muse in extra time of an unexpected victory.

That's the intangible he possesses over the other two contenders for the award. Even when he's removed from the pitch, Ronaldo finds a way to lift his team to new heights.