RONALDO DESERVES BALLON

Real Madrid manager José Mourinho has said that Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo deserves to win the FIFA World Player of the Year award this time around. Cristiano Ronaldo has been overshadowed by Barcelona attacker Lionel Messi in the last three seasons.

The Portuguese last won the award when he was playing for Manchester United. However, since then, he has been overshadowed by Lionel Messi, who has won a lot of trophies in the last few seasons including two Champions League titles. However, Messi will have to be content with no major trophies like the league title and the Champions League this time around, while Ronaldo has won the Spanish league title.

He has been influential in getting Real Madrid to their first league title after three years. He has scored 46 goals from just 38 league matches, while when it comes to all competitions he has more than 50 goals to his credit. He has also enabled Real Madrid to go up to the semi-final stage in the Champions League for the second season running. Even though Lionel Messi may have scored a world-record 72 goals this season for Barcelona, the fact that he will end up without any trophy is alone enough for Real Madrid manager José Mourinho to be convinced that Ronaldo is worthy of the FIFA World Player of the Year title.

"Cristiano has to win the Ballon d'Or, not because he has been the top goalscorer, he was that already last season, but because his goals have delivered a title. Messi scored 50 goals that weren't worth anything, in the same way that Cristiano scored 42 last season that didn't stand for anything. He hasn't been able to win the Pichichi and I believe he should be compensated with the Ballon d'Or," said José Mourinho.