Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has been voted as the sexiest athlete of 2012 by the People magazine.

In a poll conducted by the American celebrity weekly magazine, the 27-year-old earned more votes than tennis player Andy Murray, swimmer Ryan Lochte, basketball player LeBron James and American football player Tim Tebow.

Ronaldo returned to training for Madrid on Thursday after recovering from an eye injury and could feature against Athletic Bilbao in La Liga on Saturday.

Madrid are currently third in the league standings with 23 points from 11 matches.