Cristiano Ronaldo breaks his silence following his 2025 Ballon d'Or snub with six-word comment
Cristiano Ronaldo has broken his silence after he was not included in the list of nominees for the 2025 men's Ballon d'Or award.
Neither Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi were nominated for the award for the second consecutive year.
The list of nominees are led by PSG's Ousmane Dembele and Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, who are among the favourites to win the award.
Ronaldo scored 33 goals in all domestic competitions last season and won the Nations League with Portugal - the latter of which gave him an advantage over last year.
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But the 40-year-old football legend will be once again absent from the ceremony next month in Paris.
No player currently playing outside of Europe's top five leagues has been nominated, though Arsenal's new signing Viktor Gyokeres has been recognised for his exploits at Sporting Lisbon.
In 2021, Ronaldo appeared to criticise the decision to award Messi the Ballon d'Or over him.
And last year, he claimed that the men's award had 'no credibility' after Rodri won it over Vinicius Junior.
It is perhaps not too much of a surprise, therefore, that he didn't react as strongly as he might have done in the past over not missing out.
Hours after the nominees were announced, he took to Instagram to write a seemingly pointed six-word message.
Alongside a photo of him celebrating a goal for Al Nassr, Ronaldo wrote: "Keep pushing, there's more to do."
Who has been nominated for the 2025 men's Ballon d'Or?
The full list of 30 nominees for the 2025 men's Ballon d'Or award is below:
Ousmane Dembele (Paris Saint-Germain, France)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain, Italy)
Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid, England)
Desire Doue (Paris Saint-Germain, France)
Denzel Dumfries (Inter Milan, Netherlands)
Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund, Guinea)
Erling Haaland (Manchester City, Norway)
Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal/Sporting CP, Sweden)
Harry Kane (Bayern Munich, England)
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Paris Saint-Germain/Napoli, Georgia)
Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona, Poland)
Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool, Argentina)
Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan, Argentina)
Scott McTominay (Napoli, Scotland)
Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid, France)
Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain, Portugal)
Joao Neves (Paris Saint-Germain, Portugal)
Pedri (Barcelona, Spain)
Cole Palmer (Chelsea, England)
Michael Olise (Bayern Munich, France)
Raphinha (Barcelona, Brazil)
Declan Rice (Arsenal, England)
Fabian Ruiz (Paris Saint-Germain, Spain)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, Egypt)
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, Netherlands)
Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid, Egypt)
Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain, Portugal)
Florian Wirtz (Liverpool/Bayer Leverkusen, Germany)
Lamine Yamal (Barcelona, Spain)
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Ballon d'Or, Lionel Messi, Football, Ousmane Dembele, Lamine Yamal, Al Nassr, Saudi Pro League
Ryan Smart