Juventus center back, Giorgio Chiellini, has claimed that his teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo “was robbed of the Ballon d’Or last year.
While claiming that his former club, Real Madrid, wanted to stop him from winning the trophy went to his former teammate, Luka Modric, in 2018, who had a successful outing with Croatia at the FIFA World Cup losing the final to France.
Ronaldo has been absent from the ceremony for two consecutive years after being hinted that he would not be winning the golden globe for the 6th time at the moment.
In an interview with Sky Sport Italia, Chiellini described what Real Madrid did as weird after a strained relationship with the club, which forced him to move to the Serie A giant, where he has picked up the award for the best player of the league award in his debut season.
He, however, admitted that it was more balanced this season but opined that Modric, even in the best season of his career, didn’t deserve it. He added that such was a signal from Real Madrid, as they wanted to stop the Portugal captain from winning it.
While noting that since Ronaldo won the Champions League the last time Modric won it, the Italian said by that logic, Liverpool defender, Virgil Van Dijk should’ve won it this year.
He even added that the award ought to have gone to Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba or Kylian Mbappe for their role in ensuring France scooped up the most coveted trophy in Russia.
With Barcelona star Lionel Messi picking up the award on Monday night in Paris, he has now surpassed Ronaldo with one after they both tied at five.
Speaking on their current standing in Serie A, Chiellini noted that he expected Inter Milan to challenge Juventus having won the Scudetto for eight consecutive times.
He, therefore, stated that the battle for the Scudetto would go through the wires as the Old Lady will reveal its true selves from January.
Juventus lost the top spot after playing a 2-2 draw with Atlanta at home during the weekend, and Inter snuffed out a 2-1 win against a resilient Spal to overtake Maurizio Sarri’s team.
Speaking further, the defender said having worked with Inter’s manager Antonio Conte and with the knowledge of his players, he expected a battle for a long time to come in the Italian top division.
Speaking on the Bianconeri’s style of play so far, he said the team has to grow, having started the campaign well, and it culminated with a win against Inter, which had been Juve’s best performance of the season so far.
He said Juve had since then suffered a physiological decline, but there is a budget to make some signings in January.
Juventus will face another tough opponent, Lazio in Rome while Inter will welcome Roma at the weekend.
Cristiano Ronaldo is priced at 11.25 to emerge as the top scorer in the Serie A, while Romelu Lukaku is available at 6.50.
Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed
