Cristiano Ronaldo hits out at Ballon d’Or chief after finishing 6th. Cristiano Ronaldo was absent from Monday night’s awards ceremony – run by publication France Football – and the Manchester United star sent out a lengthy retort to comments made by Ferre to the New York Times that he always had Messi in his sights amid their bitter rivalry to win the year gong.
Ronaldo hits out at Ballon d’Orchief’s ‘LIES’ after Pascal Ferre claimed that his career ambition is to finish with more wins than Lionel Messi, as SIXTH-placed star insists: ‘I win for myself and my teams. I’m never against anyone’. Cristiano Ronaldo has released a furious statement hitting out at claims from Ballon d’Or chief Pascal Ferre that his career ambition was to finish with more awards than his rival Lionel Messi, after the forward finished sixth in the rankings.
He ended up being beaten by the Argentine on Monday night having missed out on a place in the top five. He had edged ahead of Gigi Donnarumma, Kylian Mbappe, Kevin de Bruyne and Mo Salah, but didn’t have enough votes to win his sixth award. N’Golo Kante, Karim Benzema and Jorginho occupied fifth to third spots respectively, as Robert Lewandowski was pipped to the top gong by Lionel Messi – the Argentine’s seventh Ballon d’Or.
But although he will be disappointed to lose out to Messi, Ronaldo made it clear he was far from happy with Ferre’s claims that he wanted to better his rival’s total. Ferre had said: ‘Ronaldo has only one ambition and that is to retire with more Ballon d’Or than Messi and I know because he told me.’
But the player hit back at that claim, saying Ferre had used his name to promotehis name, his publication and the ceremony – insisting he wins for himself and his clubs and that his career goals are to leave an impact on the game, win as many trophies as possible and leave an example to youngsters.
‘Today’s outcome explains Pascal Ferre’s statements last week, when he stated that I confided in him that my only ambition was to finish my career with more Golden Balls than Lionel Messi,’ he wrote on Instagram.
‘Pascal Ferre lied, he used my name to promote himself and to promote the publication he works for.
Source – Sport365
