What Cristiano Ronaldo Said On Insta Post Slamming Lionel Messi’s Ballon d’Or Win – News18

Cristiano Ronaldo has left the footballing world bewildered with his surprising reaction on an Instagram post critical of Lionel Messi’s eighth Ballon d’Or victory. While his fans and several pundits thought the Argentine deserved to win, many others believed Haaland was “robbed” of the honour. In a video posted on the Spanish platform Diario AS’ Instagram account, journalist Tomas Roncero is heard saying, “Hello friends. What we knew has happened… Messi has eight Ballon d’Ors well, he should have five, he has Ballon d’Ors of Iniesta and Xavi, Robert Lewandoski who won six trophies in one season and Haaland who was topscorer of everything”.

Ronaldo liked the controversial post and added a comment with four laughing emojis.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo actively competed for the Ballon d’Or title in the last decade, sharing 13 trophies among them. The former Real Madrid forward won his first award back in 2008 when he won the treble with Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

Messi, on the other hand, won his first crown in 2009 after winning six titles with Barcelona in a single season. The duo went on to share the award wins until 2017 after which Luka Modric broke the duopoly by winning his first crown in 2018. Messi then went on to surpass his arch-rival in 2019 when he won his sixth Ballon d’Or before picking up another one in 2021.

In this edition of the Ballon d’Or, Lionel Messi was the front-runner for the individual honour after guiding Argentina to their third World Cup trophy in Qatar last year. The Argentine also won the Player of the Tournament award having scored seven goals in the competition.

Erling Haaland had an astonishing first season with Manchester City. He broke the Premier League scoring record for a single season while winning a historic treble with the Pep Guardiola side. He also surpassed the 50-goal mark last season for City across all competitions. His heroics saw him win the Gerd Muller trophy but miss out on the main award. City goalkeeper Ederson also lost the Yashin trophy to Argentina’s Emi Martinez.

Lionel Messi is next set to make his return to the United States as Inter Miami will start their pursuit of the MLS title in the upcoming season. The Argentine won’t feature for his nation until the next international break in November.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, has scored 43 goals this calendar year, the most by any player in the world. He is also the top-scorer in the Saudi Pro League, having already scored 11 goals in the 23-24 season.