Ribery hits back at Cristiano Ronaldo in war of words over the Ballon d'Or

Franck Ribery has previously expressed his displeasure at missing out on the Ballon d’Or in 2013 to five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo and has once again hit out at the Portuguese forward

Franck Ribery has mocked Cristiano Ronaldo’s claim about the Ballon d’Or after he revealed his three favourites. The latest iteration of the award is set to be handed out in a glitzy ceremony in Paris in September.

Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembele is among the favourites after helping the French side to the Champions League for the first time. Lamine Yamal and Mohamed Salah have also been mentioned as contenders for the award.

Meanwhile, five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo has offered his take on this year’s frontrunners and claimed that Dembele could be the favourite after his European success. He said: “The individual awards have lost some consensus, I can’t say anything about who should win.

“In my opinion, those who stand out and win the Champions League should win. But there is no consensus.

“I don’t believe much in individual awards because I know what goes on behind the scenes. Lamine [Yamal] could win, like [Ousmane] Dembele or Vitinha, other emerging players… but individual awards are irrelevant.”

Ribery has since replied with a scathing comment on social media. “So you NEED to win the Champions League to win the Ballon d’Or?,” Ribery asked on Twitter alongside three laughing emojis.

It is not the first time that Ribery has expressed his annoyance at missing out on the Ballon d’Or. The Frenchman was among the front-runners for the award back in 2013 after helping Bayern Munich to the Champions League crown.

But he ended up finishing third behind Messi and Ronaldo - the latter claiming the crown with 27.99% of the votes. And that is a call that still wrangles with Ribery to his day.

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“It was unfair," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport earlier this year. "It was an incredible season for me, and I should have won it. They extended the time for votes, and something strange happened. I felt that it was a political choice."

Ronaldo has since added a further three Ballon d’Ors to his collection, his last coming in 2017 when he was still with Real Madrid. His former teammates Luka Modric and Karim Benzema have won the award since, with Messi also scooping a further two. Manchester City midfielder Rodri is the current holder after becoming the first Premier League player since Ronaldo in 2008 to win the award.