.jpg)
Cristiano Ronaldo has lived up to his reputation of self-absorption by declaring if he could vote for himself to win the Ballon d'Or, he would.
The Real Madrid superstar is second favourite behind Barcelona rival Lionel Messi to pick up the prestigious FIFA award which crowns one player the world's best, on January 7.
'If I could, I'd vote for myself,' he told France Football.
'I am what I am and I'm happy with that. Being too humble isn't good. In Portugal we say that too much humility is vanity.'
'I play for the passion of football, and for the love of the teams I represent. If I was playing for money, I'd be at another club,' he said.
'All players love it when teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United or Chelsea dream about them, but that's not in my thoughts.'
On November 2 Messi said he would not be voting for Ronaldo to win the award.
'Last year, I voted for Xavi, Iniesta and Aguero, in that order,' he told Catalan daily Sport.
'I reckon this year it will be the same. I have not thought about it yet, but it will be more or less the same.'
Messi added: 'Xavi and Iniesta will be there for sure and I am thinking between [Gonzalo] Higuain, [Angel] Di Maria or Aguero.'
Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has offered his support to Ronaldo by backing the player to the hilt.
'If Messi is the best on the planet, Ronaldo is the best in the universe,' the enigmatic coach declared.
The Argentine maestro has already pipped Ronaldo to one award - picking up the European Golden Shoe for the 2011-12 campaign.
He hit an astonishing 63 goals, beating the competition's previous record of 47 from Dudu Georgescu in 1976-77.
Ronaldo trailed Messi with a none-the-less remarkable 57 goals.
0 comments:
Post a Comment