Football Liverpool player-turned-pundit Jamie Carragher feels that Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo would choose to win the Ballon d’Or over the Champions League. The former defender has suggested that the Madrid ace would prefer to win an individual award over a team award like the Champions League.
In his column for the Daily Mail, Carragher weighed in on the Messi-Ronaldo debate and said that Lionel Messi, who like Ronaldo, loves to win individual awards but is a team player, while he suspects that Ronaldo is not the same.
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Carragher had this to say about Ronaldo and his love for awards, “You get the feeling he would take more satisfaction winning the Ballon d’Or than he would get winning the Champions League.”
The Sky Sports pundit also spoke about the much talked about incident in Madrid’s game against Athletic Bilbao, where Ronaldo raised his hand and looked like he was appealing for offside against team-mate Alvaro Morata’s winner, “Take last week against Athletic Bilbao. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw him appeal that the winner scored by Alvaro Morata – his team-mate – was offside. Some of his team-mates have tried to argue Ronaldo has been misinterpreted but look at the pictures.”
The former English international also admitted that he was a Messi fan and said, "It is Messi every single time.”
There may be some bias with Carragher’s decision to choose Messi over Ronaldo, owing to the pundit’s allegiances to Liverpool and Ronaldo’s love for his former club Manchester United.
Ronaldo is the frontrunner to win the Ballon d’Or this season after having an impressive season for club and country. The Portuguese legend guided his Real Madrid side to their 11th European Cup, and his third UEFA Champions League trophy.
The former Manchester United forward also helped his country, Portugal, in securing their very first major international trophy when they won the Euro 2016, defeating hosts France in the final.
The shortlist of the 30-man Ballon d’Or line-up was announced earlier this month, with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Gareth Bale, Robert Lewandowski, Paul Pogba, Luis Suarez and Jamie Vardy making it to the final 30-man list.
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