Cristiano Ronaldo said that Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid deserved to win the Ballon d’Or over Rodri, attracting a reaction from the Manchester City CDM.

After five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo openly claimed that Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid deserved to win the Ballon d’Or over Rodri, the Manchester City CDM broke his silence. The Spaniard said Cristiano Ronaldo should be well aware of how the Ballon d’Or winner is chosen and the Portuguese captain’s comment was a total surprise for him.

Al-Nassr FC forward Cristiano Ronaldo attended the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai last Friday. During an interaction, the veteran lauded upcoming youngsters, including Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and Real Madrid stars Vinicius Jr. and Jude Bellingham—all standout performers last season.

However, CR7 didn’t stop there. He went on to add that he believed Vinicius Jr deserved to win the Ballon d’Or over Rodri. Having won the UEFA Champions League and scoring the final are no menial feats, he said. 
“It wasn’t fair, in my opinion. I’ll say that here in front of everybody. They gave it to Rodri. He deserved it, too… But I think they should have given it to Vinicius Jr because he won the Champions League and scored a goal in the final. The other issues for me are not important,” Cristiano Ronaldo was quoted as saying.

Rodri reacted to the Real Madrid legend’s statement while talking with Spanish media house AS. “Well, it was a surprise because he knows better than anyone how this award works and, above all, how the winner is chosen. This year, the journalists who vote have decided that I should win it. Probably, these same journalists were the ones who at some point voted for him to win it, and I imagine that then he would have agreed,” the Manchester City holding midfielder, who is out with an ACL injury said. 

Perhaps City’s most important player, what elevates Rodri beyond the rest of the world’s best defensive midfielders, is his involvement in open-play sequences resulting in shots. With 8.4 per 90 minutes, he was comfortably top of the league, outshining even attacking players such as Phil Foden (7.8), Martin Odegaard (7.7), Bukayo Saka (7.5), Dominik Szoboszlai (7.4), James Maddison (7.3) and Mohamed Salah (7.3).