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Ronaldo snubs Lionel Messi

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Brazil’s retired footballer, Ronaldo doesn’t believe Lionel Messi should win a seventh Ballon d’Or this season. According to UK newspaper, Mirror, the legendary Brazilian striker reckons Real Madrid star Karim Benzema should win the illustrious award for the first time.

Writing on Facebook, Ronaldo explained: “Without a doubt, my candidate for the Ballon d’Or is Benzema. The best striker, brutal level for 10 years and champion above all. Don’t you think?”

The Ballon d’Or shortlist was recently announced and contains 30 names including Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as well as candidates from the Premier League, including, Phil Foden, Mason Mount and Raheem Sterling.

Messi is the favourite to scoop the award with Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski and Chelsea midfielder Jorginho also strong contenders.

Benzema is one of only two candidates from Real Madrid, alongside former Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric, showing the La Liga giant’s decline in recent seasons.

Real have lost the likes of Ronaldo, Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos in recent years and Benzema has become increasingly important to the club.

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The France international is the club’s top goalscorer and Carlo Ancelotti’s go-to man for goals.

Real Madrid last won back in September when they beat Real Mallorca 6-0.

And Ancelotti had nothing but positive things to say about the 33-year-old, confirming he is very much his main man.

“Karim is doing well,” he said. “He’s scored eight goals and can make you forget that he is playing very well with the team, he gets behind, he contributes to the other players. He’s a striker who doesn’t just score goals. He is complete in every way.

“The day when he needs a rest we’ll play [Luka] Jovic, who has been doing really well.

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“Jovic is up against really tough competition, but when he’s played he’s done well. He had two chances today and he also played extremely well against Valencia. He’ll play when Benzema isn’t available.”

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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