Lionel Messi has just secured his 8th Ballon d’Or and while some fans are happy, some claim Messi did not deserve to win this season. Long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo liked and commented on a post saying that 4 of Messi’s Ballon d’Or should be given to someone else.
Fans were extremely unhappy with the behavior of Ronaldo but Messi is not someone who sits quietly on the sidelines as a similar thing happened in 2022. Last year Messi was awarded the FIFA Men’s Best Player of the Year, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema uploaded his statistics on his Instagram story pointing out the fact that he should have won the award.
This explains why Karim Benzema won the 2022 Ballon d’or while Lionel Messi, who wasn’t even part of the 30-man finalists group for the Ballon d’or, won The Best award for 2022.
In 2022, the Ballon d’or did not cover the World Cup, but FIFA’s The Best did. pic.twitter.com/exu0as86k8
— Jack Martin (@JDMartin_33) November 2, 2023
Karim Benzema had a stellar 2021-22 season and even got the Ballon d’Or award. Lionel Messi responded to this by simply uploading a photo of him kissing the World Cup. After Ronaldo’s comment on the controversial post, Messi did something similar as he changed his Instagram profile picture for the first time in more than 7 years.
Messi’s Instagram profile picture had a photo of him, Antonella, and their three kids but currently, the Argentine is keeping a picture of him holding his 8th Ballon d’Or as the display picture to silence the haters.
Messi’s Argentine and former PSG teammate Leonardo Paredes commented that Ronaldo should have added more emojis so that it would match his rank in the Ballon d’Or voting this year which clearly shows the love and support Messi has.
“Factos”- Cristiano Ronaldo’s controversial comment in 2021 after Lionel Messi lifted his 7th Ballon d’Or
2020 was the year of Bayern Munich and Robert Lewandowski but due to the Covid Pandemic, the Ballon d’Or award was canceled. Fans were hopeful to see Lewandowski win the award next season as the Polish striker was in the form of his life.
Cristiano Ronaldo has to be the most insecure player I’ve ever seen. Man went from commenting “factos” to hiding his insecurity over Messi’s success with four emojis. So cringe pic.twitter.com/ZhvJgRsxCl
— Pezzy (@IamP3zzy) October 31, 2023
Cristiano Ronaldo made his move to Manchester United that year and had a decent year with Juventus but was not tipped to win the Ballon d’Or. Lionel Messi joined PSG that season and had the Copa America to his name.
Another win, important we keep the momentum!
Well done team!💪🏼@AlNassrFC_EN 💛💙 pic.twitter.com/OjI6ak9JZg— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 28, 2023
When Lionel Messi was announced the winner, fans were not happy as they believed Lewandowski deserved that award. Cristiano Ronaldo could not even break into the top 5 rankings. But what caused the most noise was when Cristiano Ronaldo liked and commented on a post saying “Factos”, which showed how both Cristiano and Lewandowski had better individual seasons than Messi.
Fair to say that the comment itself generated so much noise that people stopped caring that Messi won his 7th Ballon d’Or. Lionel Messi being the gentleman he is did not comment on the matter.