Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday agreed with a fan post on Instagram that slammed Lionel Messi for stealing the Ballon d'Or from him and Robert Lewandowski.
The 65th France Football Ballon d'Or was awarded to Lionel Messi on Monday. Winning the prestigious award for a record-extending seventh time.
The title crowns an exceptional year for the Albiceleste captain, who won the Copa America with a 1-0 victory over Brazil in the final last July.
The Paris Saint-Germain striker was ahead of Poland forward Lewandowski to the prize by 33 votes. Meanwhile, Chelsea's Jorginho came third while Ronaldo was placed outside the top three for the first time since 2010. He was ranked sixth in this year's list - below Messi, Lewandowski, Jorginho, Karim Benzema, and N'Golo Kante.
Considered one of the best players of all time, PSG's number 30 has set a new record by being crowned Ballon d'Or on 7 occasions, including four consecutive times between 2009 and 2012 and in 2015 and 2019.
Nevertheless, the fan account which goes by the name of 'Cristiano Ronaldo - The Legendary' (cr7.0_lendario) listed all of the Portuguese achievements this season which includes breaking the international goalscoring record. The account which is followed by Ronaldo himself described Messi's accolade as "Theft. Dirt. Shame. Simply regrettable."
Listing Ronaldo's achievements in the last year for Juventus, United, and the national team, the post read: "43 goals in the year, 6 goals in 5 games in this Champions League, all decisive and a guy who, regardless of age, continues to work miracles and is the guy who most impresses the world most often. They still put the guy in 6th... Do you really think that 5 guys did more than him in the year? Never."
"He could fight for this award calmly and the fight would be good with Lewandowski who in individual numbers was incredible and Bayern had a better season than Juventus and has been having a calmer season than United, but at the national selection level for example, Cristiano was much better. And who does the prize go to? For Messi, who only won the Copa del Rey by Barcelona, he hasn't scored a goal against Real Madrid since when Cristiano left, disappeared in the big games of the season, won the Copa America that was supposed to be every 4 years and do practically every year. He didn't score in the final or in the semifinal. And he's been having a weak season with PSG individually."
"For Cristiano to win this prize he has to be 300% unquestionable. It's no use scoring the most beautiful bike of the year, being champion of everything by club, top scorer of everything and scoring a hat-trick in the World Cup, they still provide a way to take his prize. With Messi, it's the other way round. He can do a low-key season, way below, they'll always find a way to favour him and give him the prize. Theft. Dirt. Shame. Simply regrettable. Who saw, saw. Anyone who is smart enough knows who the real deserving ones are. Receiving awards without earning it is false happiness, without pride," the Insta user added.
Ronaldo not only liked the post but also commented "facts" underneath it.
Earlier on Monday, Cristiano Ronaldo hit out at Ballon d'Or chief Pascal Ferre for claiming that the Portuguese told him that he wished to retire with more Ballon d'Or than the Argentine superstar Lionel Messi. Ronaldo then posted a lengthy statement on Instagram, saying that he does not wish to win more Ballon d'Or than Messi and his goal is just to make his team win.
( With inputs from ANI )
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