A book released on Wednesday revealed that Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo threatened to retire from football if his arch-rival Lionel Messi won the 2019 Ballon d’Or, as happened when the latter won his sixth Ballon d’Or.
The last decade was the title of a fierce competition between Ronaldo, who played for Real Madrid from 2009 to 2018, and Barcelona star Lionel Messi before his move to Paris Saint-Germain last year.
Journalist Terry Marchand, author of Ronaldo’s biography, revealed on Wednesday that the Portuguese star was disappointed and threatened to leave football because of Messi: if he had stayed at Real Madrid, he would have won the award.
Ronaldo moved to Juventus after the World Cup in Russia, and he told Marchand of this: It is easy for a person to stay in his bubble when he is successful, but I risked moving to Juventus, and I changed the culture, the club, the championship and football there, it was a risk and I’m sure it deprived me of the victory, with the golden ball.
Marchand continued on what happened in 2019: if Messi wins the Ballon d’Or this year, I will retire from football.
At the time, Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or after beating Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool defender, and Cristiano Ronaldo in third place.
Messi has won 7 Golden Balls, while Ronaldo is behind him with 5 balls, the last of which was in 2017.
