Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo: Real Madrid Star Believes Messi Will Win Ballon d'Or
While Real Madrid star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo will again be a candidate to win his fourth Ballon d'Or this year, he knows for a fact that his rival, Lionel Messi, has the better chance of winning it this year, thanks to the Argentine leading his own club, Barcelona, to the Treble last season.
The Portuguese superstar, widely regarded as the best soccer player in the world, showed his class by complimenting his fiercest rival in the field. Talking to the Jonathan Ross Show, he said, "To be honest, I think Messi is going to win this year because this kind of trophy, it depends on votes."
In case Messi wins the award in January next year, it means he'll be receiving his fifth, while Ronaldo is going for his fourth, after winning it in 2013 and 2014.
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The most obvious reason why Ronaldo and Messi are called fierce rivals in soccer is the Ballon d'Or, to which both players have won for the past seven years. This trend means that in almost a decade, these two have been the best players in the sport.
Also called the Golden Ball, the FIFA Ballon d'Or is an annual association football award handed out by FIFA to a male football player the organization deems as the one who performed the best in the previous year. The determination of the winner is primarily based on the votes from journalists, national team coaches, and captains.
The 30-year-old also said that he's not really that worried about winning it because he never even expected he'd won it three times. "I did probably the best season of my career, which is good and I was the highest scorer in Europe, but it's all about the votes, it's difficult, and to be honest, I'm not very worried about that," he added.
Asked if the rivalry breeds animosity between them, Ronaldo doesn't think so. "I don't have rivals, we have a normal relationship," he said.
