Monday, 7th January, 2013
Zinedine Zidane believes Cristiano Ronaldo should win the Ballon d’Or for what he has dubbed an "amazing" 2012 from the Portugal forward.
The ceremony to crown the winner of the Ballon d’Or is held this evening and Ronaldo’s arch-rival Lionel Messi is tipped to pick up what would be his fourth successive accolade.
It will be a bitter pill for Ronaldo to swallow, especially because he helped Real Madrid break the stranglehold of Messi’s Barcelona on La Liga in 2012.
He also performed well with Portugal at Euro 2012 and had an all-round superb year.
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But Messi was also excellent, breaking the goalscoring record and ending up with 91 strikes to his name for 2012.
Zidane though wants Ronaldo to win.
"I wish it is Ronaldo, because he plays for Madrid and because of his record and what he did in the last year", Zidane told L’Equipe.
"It is amazing."
It remains likely though that Messi will be victorious, leaving Ronaldo having to regroup and aim to win the crown for 2013.
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