This Friday evening took place the 15th edition of the ceremony of Globe Soccer Awardswhich rewarded different personalities from world football. Among them, we notably found Cristiano Ronaldo, whose media outings set the internet on fire. And rightly so. The Portuguese did not hesitate to criticize Rodri’s Ballon d’Or victory, believing that Vinicius Jr, winner of the Champions League, deserved more to be crowned.
From then on, and as he had already done a few months earlier, the Al-Nassr striker began to distribute the good points. In his eyes, the Ballon d’Or or The Best have lost their value, unlike the Globe Soccer Awards, which are ” honest “. Would he have made the same speech if the organization had not made him its greatest pride for several years, not hesitating to erect new trophies for him, such as that of the best scorer of all time (2024 and 2021 ), the Maradona Award (2023), the best player of the century (2020) or even the fans’ favorite (2023)? Obviously not.
And then, like in 2023Cristiano Ronaldo once again took a shot at Ligue 1. Last January, he estimated that the level of the Saudi championship was equal to, or even higher than, that of France. But this time, the soon-to-be forty-year-old was much more critical:
« If SPL is better? Of course, easily. I’m not saying that because I play here. I don’t care what people think, they should come here, run in 38,39 or 40 degrees. We’ll see how they get on. Don’t believe me, come on. In France, there is only PSG, the rest is over. Some clubs are competitive, ok. But PSG is the strongest. Nobody can beat them. They have better players, more money. It’s factual, I don’t know why people are surprised. »
Besides the famous preterition “ I’m not saying that because I play here “, because strangely, he didn’t say that before landing at Al-Nassr, let’s also try to be factual with Ronaldo. This summer, in pre-season, his club had the opportunity to compete against several Spanish and Portuguese European clubs, most of them of a lower caliber. So we can imagine that his teammates (in his absence) rolled over their opponents? Well no.
Results of the eight friendly matches: a victory against Marítimo (Portuguese D2, 0-1), four defeats, against FC Porto (4-0), Portimonense (Portuguese D2, 1-0), Granada (Spanish D2, 1- 0) and Almeria (Spanish D2, 3-0), three draws, against Louletano DC (Portuguese D4, 1-1), Farense (1-1) and Lusitano de Évora (Portuguese D4, 0-0). And for those who would be tempted to say that he wasn’t there, the summer before, he was eaten 5-0 by Celta Vigo and 4-1 by SL Benfica. No more, no less.
Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images
