Cristiano Ronaldo: Rivaldo slams unfair Ballon D'Or snub, ‘no reason’ for Luka Modric win - 7M sport

Cristiano Ronaldo: Rivaldo slams unfair Ballon D'Or snub, ‘no reason’ for Luka Modric win

CRISTIANO RONALDO should have won the Ballon D'Or crown NOT Luka Modric, Brazil legend Rivaldo insists.


Posted Saturday, December 08, 2018 by Dailystar.co.uk

Cristiano Ronaldo: Rivaldo slams unfair Ballon D'Or snub, ‘no reason’ for Luka Modric win
Brazil legend Rivaldo insists Cristiano Ronaldo should have won the Ballon D'Or

Real Madrid and Croatia star Modric claimed the prestigious award last week to finally end the 10-year dominance of Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Ronaldo came in second while Messi finished a lowly fifth in a major shake-up to what as been the norm in the Ballon D'Or over the last decade.

But Rivaldo believes the result was wrong and Modric was not fully deserving of the prize despite his stunning year.

The Barcelona great told Betfair: “It's always tough to give your opinion about this subject.

"Luka Modric had a great season in 2018, winning the Champions League and helping Croatia to be World Cup final, but if I had to choose, I would vote for Ronaldo.

"The Portuguese scored a lot of goals last season, won the Champions League - scoring a sensational goal against Juventus away from home - and proved his value at the World Cup scoring four times, including a hat-trick against Spain, so I believe that he deserved the award more than anyone else.

"And then, we also have Lionel Messi who should have been at least in the top three. Honestly, I can't see why things have changed this time - removing the focus from Cristiano and Messi - because both of them had good seasons.

"Some people are mentioning that Ronaldo's club change could have contributed to losing the award.

"But I don't agree with that as most of the decisive moments had already happened when he left Real Madrid to sign for Juventus, so there are no reasons to consider that a handicap.

"I think this change of focus could be an attempt to at least for a year write a different name in the history instead of still mutating from Ronaldo to Messi and Messi to Ronaldo.

Cristiano Ronaldo: Rivaldo slams unfair Ballon D'Or snub, ‘no reason’ for Luka Modric win
Real Madrid star Luka Modric won the 2018 Ballon D'Or ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo

"Anyway, I consider that unfair because they had solid campaigns and were decisive on their clubs, so there were no reasons to change that tendency.”

Ronaldo will look to put his Ballon D'Or disappointment behind him when his Juventus side face a huge Serie A clash against Inter Milan tonight.

Juve are still unbeaten this season and have won 13 of their 14 top-flight games.

And Ronaldo has been in fine form, scoring or assisting 15 league goals for his new club.



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