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Topics: Ballon d'Or, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland
Josh Lawless
Topics: Ballon d'Or, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland
Piers Morgan has claimed that Lionel Messi's latest Ballon d'Or win shows that the award is "rigged".
Messi received the coveted France Football prize for a record-extending eighth time on Monday evening.
He received the most votes from 100 journalists representing the leading FIFA nations, beating both Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.
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His triumph came primarily as a result of Messi finally winning the World Cup with Argentina in Qatar, scoring twice in a stunning final against France.
But Morgan, whose affiliation to Messi's long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo is clear, believes Messi was not the rightful winner.
He feels as though Haaland's 52 goals in Manchester City's historic treble should have given him his first Ballon d'Or.
Morgan also claims that Ronaldo should have had two more Ballon d'Ors to take his tally to seven.
On X, he wrote: "Messi preposterously winning the Ballon d’Or this year is yet more proof that the whole ‘Golden Ball’ system is rigged.
“He should have won 2 fewer, @Cristiano should have won 2 more, and Haaland should have won this year. End."
Ronaldo, now playing for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, was not nominated for the Ballon d'Or and did not make the 30-player shortlist for the first time since 2003.
A Ronaldo fan claims to have evidence that the award is biased against him and posted a detailed thread containing quotes from former FIFA and UEFA presidents and an image of when he and Didier Drogba were mocked at the ceremony a few years back.
Ronaldo has not directly addressed his omission and Messi's win, however he did react to comments from Tomas Roncero who did not agree with Messi winning and claims he should only have five Ballon d'Ors.
Ronaldo liked and commented with four laughing emojis on an Instagram post which had Roncero's quotes and said: "Hello friends what we already knew has happened. They were going to give another Ballon d’Or to Messi. He went to retire in Miami, but he was already looking like retired at PSG to prepare for the World Cup, he won the World Cup, yes, well, but with six penalties.
"The World Cup was 10 months ago, we’re in November. Messi has eight Ballon d’Ors well, he should have five. He has the Ballon d’Ors of [Andres] Iniesta and Xavi, [Robert] Lewandowski who won 6 trophies in one season and [Erling] Haaland who was the top scorer of everything.”
Ronaldo was taunted with Messi chants in his latest game for Al Nassr against Steven Gerrard's Al Ettifaq but responded when Sadio Mane scored the winner.