Cristiano Ronaldo Omits Lionel Messi From His Voting List, Skips FIFA Best Awards Ceremony
Rohan Raj Updated: Sep 24, 2019, 15:57 IST
Last month kick-started the fierce race amongst top footballer to bag the biggest prizes in football this year. Virgil Van Dijk drew first blood as he pipped the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to claim the UEFA Men's Player of the Year award. And, on September 23, Messi got the better of the Dutch defender and Portuguese forward to clinch the FIFA Men's Player of the Year honour.
While Van Dijk was tipped as favourite to win the award, it was Barcelona striker, who scored 54 goals in 58 games, who thwarted interests from his rivals to win the coveted award during a star-studded ceremony at Milan's iconic La Scala Opera House. With both Messi and Van Dijk already claiming two of the three top awards this year, Ronaldo wasn't pleased.
The Juventus forward decided to snub the awards and decided against attending the ceremony where he was named in FIFA's World 11 best team along with Messi. Moreover, Ronaldo didn't vote for Messi despite the Argentine putting the Portugal footballer second in his rankings.
Having voted for Sadio Mane, Ronaldo and Frenkie de Jong (in that order), Ronaldo's voting list read: Matthijs de Light at first, De Jong at second and Kylian Mbappe at third. As many, once again, branded him as a sore loser, his decision to snub Messi did seem quite bizarre, considering Ronaldo's friendliness towards his rival during the UEFA Awards ceremony last month.
During that ceremony, Ronaldo had made it pretty clear that he has no issue with the Barcelona talisman. "We shared the stage for 15 years, me and him. I don't know that it's ever happened in football, the same two guys, the same stage, all the time. It's not easy," Ronaldo had said last month at the ceremony.
Ronaldo: "We've not had dinner together yet, but I hope in the future!" 😃@Cristiano & Messi at the #UCLdraw 🤜🤛 pic.twitter.com/KOFY8680tU
"We have a good relationship. We've not had dinner together yet, but I hope (we will) in the future. Of course, I miss playing in Spain – we've had that battle the last 15 years, which is good. It pushed me and I pushed him as well. It's good to be part of the history of football. I'm there and of course he's there as well," the Portuguese added.
In reply, Messi, too, had no qualms in accepting Ronaldo's invite. "I've always said that I don't have any issue with him. We might not be friends because we've never shared a dressing room together but I always see him at award shows and there's no problem. We actually spoke with each other for quite a long time at the most recent show. I don't know if there will be a dinner because I don't know if our paths will cross for obvious reasons, each one of us has our own life and our own commitments. But obviously I would accept the invitation," Messi had responded.
But, given Ronaldo's recent exploits, it seems that all these two footballing stars are far away from seeing eye-to-eye. It was the first time that Messi has won the FIFA Best Award, which was created in 2016. Ronaldo had bagged the trophy in its inaugural edition and then, once again, in 2017 before Croatian Luka Modric pipped him and Messi to win the honours last year.
As Messi celebrates his triumph, and Van Dijk already securing the UEFA Men's Player of the Year last month, Ronaldo will be eager to overtake his rivals at the 2019 edition of the Ballon d'Or, scheduled to take place on December 2.
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