Cristiano Ronaldo: “Vinicius should have won the Ballon d’Or”

Cristiano Ronaldo spoke on Friday ahead of this year’s Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai and gave his honest opinion regarding the recent Ballon d’Or controversy.

“Vinicius should have won the Ballon d’Or. Rodri also deserved it, but Vinicius won the Champions League, he scored in the final... “ the Al Nassr star said. ”Other things are not important to me, when someone deserves it, you have to choose a fair winner. In my opinion, I don’t mind saying it, it was unfair.”

Cristiano also revealed what he plans to do after he hangs up his boots. “I am not a coach, I will never be a coach. I will not be a president either, but I could perhaps become the owner of a club. It will always depend on the moment, the opportunities...”.

“I think that clubs should look after their young players more so that they deliver results. Modern football is more and more intense. Players like Lamine Yamal, who at 17 is already a world figure. We didn’t see that so much in the past,” Cristiano added.

What did Cristiano say about Ligue 1?

As for the French league, Cristiano says he is not impressed by Ligue 1: “In France, there is only PSG. The rest are finished. I don’t care what they say. France only has PSG. The others compete, okay, but PSG is the strongest. Nobody competes with them. They have better players, more money. That’s not a lie. I don’t understand people’s surprise.”

At the same time he was quick to defend the Saudi Pro League, in which he has been playing for Al Nassr since 2022: “They had to go there and play to see. Running in 39, 40 degrees... they had to move there and see. Don’t believe my words.”

And he also spoke about the situation at his old club, Real Madrid who are starting to react after a poor start to the season with a lot of injury problems. “People don’t expect Real Madrid to be good from the start but they always come good at the end, when it matters. Now they are ahead of Barcelona,” Cristiano explained, before backing his old club with win their 16th Champions League.

“And Madrid... if you had to bet on who will win the Champions League, I’d put my money on Real Madrid because you never know what’s going to happen. The aura of the Bernabéu is diferente, teams are scared when they play there. That’s a fact, history shows that. Never consider Madrid to be dead because they always bounce back - and City as well. I’m very curious to see what will happen,“ Cristiano ended.

Cristiano is among the finalists for the men’s award in tonight’s gala along with Jude Bellingham, Dani Carvajal, Antoine Griezmann, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Toni Kroos, Robert Lewandowski, Viktor Gyokeres, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Ademola Lookman, Lautaro Martinez, Cole Palmer, Rodrigo, Mohamed Salah, Yamine Lamal and Vinicius.

Vinicius won the men’s award while Jude Bellingham won the Best Midfielder and Maradona Awards.