Cristiano Ronaldo Voted Best Premier League Player Ever - Ahead Of Thierry Henry And Ryan Giggs

The Portuguese forward scored 118 goals in 292 appearances for Manchester United, inspiring them to a hat-trick of titles between 2007 and 2009

Despite spending just six seasons in the Premier League, Cristiano Ronaldo has been voted the best player in the division's 23-year history.

A survey conducted by Usurv placed Ronaldo above Thierry Henry and Ryan Giggs who finished in second and third place respectively.

The FIFA Ballon d'Or holder joined United in 2003 from Sporting Lisbon for a fee of £12m.

During his six-year spell at Old Trafford he scored 118 goals in 292 appearances and was named World Player of the Year in 2008 after inspiring United to a third European Cup triumph.

His spell in the Premier League was brought to an end when he joined Real Madrid for a then world-record fee of £80m in 2009.

As many as 1,000 members of the public were given the option of 10 players to vote for and invited to select who they thought was the best in the top-flight's history.

Runner-up: Henry polled second in the vote

Those 10 players were: Ronaldo, Henry, Giggs, Eric Cantona, Gianfranco Zola, Dennis Bergkamp, Steven Gerrard, Alan Shearer, Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira.

Ronaldo raked in 24 percent of the votes - six percent more than the amount gathered by Arsenal legend Henry.

Giggs was given the nod by 13 percent of voters, ahead of former United teammate Eric Cantona and Alan Shearer who both collected 12 percent of the votes.

Departing Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard was the final player to hit double figures as he was backed by 10 percent of people.

Bergkamp, Zola, Keane and Vieira gathered five, three, two and one percent of the remaining votes respectively.

Usurv survey.

The final standings

• 1 Ronaldo (177 votes - 24 percent)
• 2 Henry (133 votes - 18 percent)
• 3 Giggs (95 votes - 13 percent)
• 4 Shearer (92 votes - 12 percent)
• 5 Cantona (89 votes - 12 percent)
• 6 Gerrard (77 - 10 percent)
• 7 Bergkamp (40 votes - five percent)
• 8 Zola (24 - three percent)
• 9 Keane (14 votes - two percent)
• 10 Vieira (six votes - one percent)

*Out of 1000 people surveyed, 253 couldn't decide who to vote for. Their responses were not taken into account.