THE BEST AWARDS
Why did Cristiano Ronaldo not vote as Portugal captain at the The Best FIFA Awards 2022?
The former Man Utd and Real Madrid superstar was not part of the voting process to choose the best players of 2022.
After the The Best FIFA Awards 2022 were held in Paris this Monday, all the captains of the affiliated teams and their votes were announced to choose their best players of the year. One of the most striking aspects of this process was that Cristiano Ronaldo did not participate as the captain of the Portugal national team.
Truth is, there’s really no surprise, despite many people asking where he was. We need to remember that in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the now Al-Nassr player ended up being relegated to the Lusitanian bench by the coach Fernando Santos and the armband was given to Pepe. His top vote went to Kylian Mbappé rather than eventual winner Lionel Messi, who he ignored.
The rest of the choices made by the former Real Madrid player were Luka Modric and Karim Benzema.
How many The Best awards has Cristiano Ronaldo won?
The historic player for Real Madrid and Portugal won the first two editions of The Best FIFA Awards in 2016 and 2017. In the first year he had won the Champions League against Atlético Madrid in the final and the European Championships (beating France in the final). The following year he was once again crowned European Champions as he and his Madrid buddies triumphed over Juventus.
How Pepe voted in place of Ronaldo
The veteran central defender of FC Porto didn’t forget his past as a Madridista, which is why he may have opted to go with Thibaut Courtois over Emiliano Martínez and Yassine Bounou as Best Goalkeeper of the Year. For Best Coach he went with Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid), Walid Regragui (Morocco) and Didier Deschamps (France).
Future of Cristiano Ronaldo with Portugal
The number ‘7′ of Al-Nassr has the doors open to him with the new helmsman of the Portuguese, Roberto Martínez, saying during his presentation that a legend like Cristiano Ronaldo “deserves all your respect.” Some reports pointed out that in mid-January he visited him in Saudi Arabia and had the first talks with him. Time will tell...