FIFA have reportedly been angered by Cristiano Ronaldo‘s failure to turn up at The Best awards gala in Milan on Monday night, after the Portuguese picked up an injury in training earlier in the day.
Ronaldo had been on a three-man shortlist for the award along with Messi and Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk, while he was also in the running to be named in this year’s World XI.
Spanish publication Marca claim that FIFA staff had expected Ronaldo to be present at the awards, adding that they thought he was coming along with teammate Matthijs de Ligt as late as Monday afternoon.
But as the awards drew closer, the Portuguese’s absence became more of a likely event. FIFA are said to be disappointed with Ronaldo for the no-show, especially as he is now based in Italy some 150km from Milan.
Marca add that Ronaldo’s decision not to attend pointed to him knowing that it was Messi who had won the award, and not himself or Van Dijk, but his camp claim it was purely to do with the injury.
Ronaldo was named in the World XI, but after each of the other 10 members of that team came onto the stage when their name was read out, FIFA did not acknowledge Ronaldo’s absence at all. Instead they just announced an XI made up of only 10 players, all of whom looked a little baffled to be left a man short in their ‘team’.
Messi voted for Ronaldo in second place in his top three for the award, in between Liverpool’s Sadio Mane and Barcelona’s Frenkie De Jong, while Ronaldo went for Matthijs de Ligt, De Jong and Kylian Mbappe as his 1, 2, 3 .
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