LaLiga: Bellingham’s late goal gives Real Madrid ‘Clasico’ win to leave title in their grasp
The win leaves Real Madrid 11 points clear of Barcelona with just six games.
Italian defender and Juventus skipper Giorgio Chiellini has revealed that Real Madrid had decided not to vote for Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo for the Ballon d’Or last year.
Ronaldo, a former Real Madrid striker left Santiago Bernabeu in 2018 summer transfer window completing a move to Juventus. The Portuguese finished as the runner-up last year when his former Blancos teammate Luka Modric won France’s Golden Ball.
“It’s ok that Messi has won the Ballon d’Or this year,” Goal quoted Chiellini as saying. “The real theft was last year, Real Madrid decided that Cristiano should not win the Ballon d’Or. It was really strange.”
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However, Chiellini feels that the award shouldn’t have gone to the Croatia captain as Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe were the better contenders for the award.
“Maybe last year Griezmann, Pogba or Mbappe should have won for doing extraordinary things at the World Cup. Modric made no sense.”
Notably, Modric won the 2017-18 Champions League with Ronaldo at Real Madrid and bagged the Golden Ball at the 2018 World Cup after helping lead Croatia to the final.
Talking about 2019, Argentina and Barcelona superstar Messi bagged his world-record sixth Ballon d’Or in Paris on Monday night. He surpassed the likes of Liverpool stars Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane and his long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo to bag home the coveted award.
With this honour, the talisman has taken his Ballon d’Or tally to six and has become the most successful player since the inception of the award, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo, who has five such awards to his name.
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