The Portuguese star spoke about a number of topics at the Globe Soccer Awards: Real Madrid, Manchester United and his future plans.
Speaking ahead of this year's Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai on Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo gave his honest opinion on the recent Ballon d'Or controversy.
“Vinicius should have won the Ballon d'Or. Rodri deserved it too, but Vinicius won the Champions League, he scored in the final…,” said the Al Nassr star. “Other things are not important to me, if someone deserves it, you have to choose a fair winner. In my opinion, I don't mind saying it, it was unfair.”
Cristiano also revealed what he plans to do after hanging up his boots. “I am not a coach, I will never be a coach. I won't be president either, but I might become the owner of a club. It will always depend on the moment, the opportunities…”.
“I think clubs need to take more care of their young players so that they can achieve results. Modern football is becoming increasingly intense. Players like Lamine Yamal, who is already a world figure at the age of seventeen. We haven't seen that so much in the past,” Cristiano added.
What did Cristiano say about Ligue 1?
As for the French league, Cristiano says he is not impressed with Ligue 1: “In France there is only PSG. The rest is done. I don't care what they say. France only has PSG. The others are competing, okay, but PSG is the strongest. No one competes with them. They have better players, more money. That's not a lie. I don't understand people's surprise.”
At the same time, he was quick to defend the Saudi Pro League, in which he has been playing for Al Nassr since 2022: “They had to go there and play to see. They were walking in 39, 40 degrees… they had to go there and see. Don't believe my words.”
And he also spoke about the situation at his old club Real Madrid, which is starting to respond after a bad start to the season with many injury problems. “People don't expect Real Madrid to be good from the start, but they are always good at the end, when it matters. Now they are ahead of Barcelona,” Cristiano explained, before backing his old club to win their 16th Champions League.
'And Madrid… if you had to bet on who will win the Champions League, I would put my money on Real Madrid because you never know what will happen. The appearance of the Bernabéu is different, teams are afraid when they play there. That is a fact, history shows that. Never think of Madrid as dead, because they always come back – and so do City. I am very curious to see what will happen,” Cristiano finished.
Cristiano is among the finalists for the men's prize at tonight's gala, along with Jude Bellingham, Dani Carvajal, Antoine Griezmann, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Tono Kroos, Robert Lewandowski, Viktor Gyokeres, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Ademola Lookman, Lautaro Martinez, Cole Palmer, Rodrigo, Mohamed Salah, Yamine Lamal and Vinicius.
Vinicius won the men's award, while Jude Bellingham won the award for best midfielder and Maradona.
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