Juventus defender, Giorgio Chiellini claimed his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo “was robbed of the Ballon d’Or last year, as Real Madrid wanted to stop him winning.”
The trophy went to Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder Luka Modric in 2018, while this year the winner is Barcelona star Lionel Messi.
Ronaldo skipped the Ballon d’Or ceremony for two years running after learning he would not be holding the golden globe aloft.
- Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus, named best player in Serie A
- What happened to the club jersey No. 7, which Ronaldo left
- Van Dijk says it’s joke, after outburst of Ronaldo sister and Piers Morgan
- Giorgio Chiellini says, ‘Ronaldo was robbed of Ballon d’Or’
- Conte put Inter to the top of Serie A, despite 16 injuries in 4 months
Asked about the decisions, Chiellini made some shocking comments on Sky Sport Italia.
“Ronaldo was really robbed of the Ballon d’Or last season, when Real Madrid decided to make sure he couldn’t win it and that was really weird,” said the defender.
“This season, it was more balanced. With all due respect, Modric even in his best season of his career didn’t deserve it. That was a signal from Real Madrid, as they wanted to stop Ronaldo winning it.
“He won the Champions League, but by that logic, (Liverpool defender Virgil) Van Dijk should’ve won it this year, or last year (Antoine) Griezmann, (Paul) Pogba or (Kylian) Mbappe for doing extraordinary things at the World Cup. Modric made no sense.”
Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or on five occasions, while Messi now has six.
Modric could not secure nomination for Ballon d’Or award this year. This is the first time, that previous year’s winner was not nominated in very next year.
Nominations for Ballon d’Or 2019
| # | Name | Club |
| 1 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona |
| 2 | Virgil Van Dijk | Liverpool |
| 3 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Juventus |
| 4 | Sadio Mané | Liverpool |
| 5 | Mohamed Salah | Liverpool |
| 6 | Kylian Mbappé | PSG |
| 7 | Alisson Becker | Liverpool |
| 8 | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich |
| 9 | Bernardo | Manchester City |
| 10 | Mahrez | Manchester City |
| 11 | De Jong | Barcelona |
| 12 | Sterling | Manchester City |
| 13 | Hazard | Real Madrid |
| 14 | De Bruyne | Manchester City |
| 15 | De Ligt | Juventus |
| 16 | Agüero | Manchester City |
| 17 | Firmino | Liverpool |
| 18 | Griezmann | Barcelona |
| 19 | Alexander-Arnold | Liverpool |
| 20 | Aubameyang | Arsenal |
| 21 | Tadić | Ajax |
| 22 | Son | Tottenham |
| 23 | Lloris | Tottenham |
| 24 | Ter Stegen | Barcelona |
| 25 | Koulibaly | Napoli |
| 26 | Benzema | Real Madrid |
| 27 | Wijnaldum | Liverpool |
| 28 | Van de Beek, | Ajax |
| 29 | Marquinhos | PSG |
| 30 | Félix | Atletico Madrid |
