Soon after bagging his fourth Ballon d’Or, Real Madrid’s talismanic striker Cristiano Ronaldo said that he would have won more number of prestigious titles if he was a teammate of Lionel Messi.
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But with Zidane’s faith in Benzema appearing to be on the wane, every indication so far is that the transition is permanent and that Ronaldo’s time as a winger is over. Though, before the announcement, everyone knew that he is going to claim it due to his performance in last season.
The Portuguese superstar, voted the world’s best player for a fourth time earlier this week, will lead Real’s charge in Japan, where the European champions face Mexico’s Club America in Thursday’s semi-final.
Ronaldo earned his fourth Ballon d’Or prize on Monday, and is now targeting a third title at the Club World Cup. Though, he was not present at the winning ceremony which was hosted in France in last Monday evening. This year, the 2 spot was given to FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.
The 31-year-old was the favourite for this year’s accolade, which was voted for by 173 journalists – one from each country on France Football’s voting list. But, finally Cristiano achieved it for the 4th times.
Ronaldo described last season as the best of his career after he won the Champions League with Madrid and Euro 2016 with Portugal, having become the Spanish club’s all-time top goalscorer in October 2015.
Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann, who finished as top scorer at Euro 2016, finished third, while Brazil forward Neymar was named fifth in the poll behind his Barcelona team-mate and Uruguay global Luis Suarez.
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Messi, on the other hand, had helped Barcelona win a domestic double last season but his hopes of guiding Argentina to a major global title were shattered after a penalty-shootout loss to Chile in the Copa America final. He also scored in the Copa del Rey final in May before Barcelona went on to secure a historic treble by beating Juventus in the Champions League a week later. He assisted five times also.
