Cristiano Ronaldo stoked reactions after he blasted Ballon d’Or and FIFA Awards for losing credibility, MySportDab reports.
2023 Ballon d’Or and FIFA Awards for the Best Men’s Player of the Year happened to be the most debated award in the awards’ history.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s arch-rival Lionel Messi decked Erling Haaland to add the two awards to his kits with most pundits arguing Haaland had a more outstanding career year than Lionel Messi after a terrific treble-winning campaign with Manchester City.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who has won the Ballon five times, and FIFA Best Men’s Player of the Year Award six times, was off the mark in the two awards in 2023.
He did not even make the nominations with some analysts attributing his deadlock to his move to Al-Nassr.
However, Ronaldo was recognized with three gongs in the Globe Soccer Awards with Lionel Messi snubbed for Erling Haaland for Best Men’s Player of The Year.
After bagging his Globe Soccer Awards triple, Ronaldo leveraged the opportunity to aim a swipe on the Ballon d’Or and FIFA Awards for snubbing him despite his stats.
He insisted the two awards are increasingly becoming irrelevant as they are not based on merits and stats again.
“I think that, in a way, these awards are losing credibility. We have to analyse the entire season. It’s not to say that Messi didn’t deserve it, or Haaland or even Mbappe, I simply no longer believe in these awards and it’s not because I won at the globe soccer but these are facts, the numbers are there and the numbers don’t deceive. They can’t take this trophy away from me because it’s a reality, So it makes me even happier because the numbers are facts,” he said.
Ronaldo’s comment has been met with reactions from football fans, who begged to differ from the footballing icon.
A fan wrote, ”It is irrelevant because you are no longer winning it.”
Another football fan said, “When you were winning it, you believed in it right?”
Another wrote, “You lose out because you joined a burger League.”
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr apparently played a role in his Ballon d’Or and FIFA Awards snub. However, the Al-Nassr star is still on top of his game. Ronaldo rounded off 2023 in a grand style finishing as the world’s topscorer with 54 goals.
