Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo believes the world’s most prestigious individual award should belong to the player who wins the Champions League.

Ronaldo’s statement about the Golden Ball is causing a stir again. Photo: Reuters .

“In my opinion, the Ballon d’Or winner should belong to a team that wins titles. In particular, it should be a player who wins the Champions League ,” Ronaldo said in September 2024.

At that time, Ronaldo was said to be a supporter of Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid) to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or. The Brazilian star contributed greatly to Real Madrid’s victory in the 2023/24 Champions League. However, the winner was Man City’s Rodri, creating a huge controversy on social networks.

This year, the 2025 Ballon d’Or race is also a competition between a Champions League winner (Ousmane Dembele) and another star (Lamine Yamal). Many fans immediately “dug up” Ronaldo’s statement and believed in Dembele’s ability to win this year.

PSG sporting director Luis Campos insists Dembele is the only one worthy of the title. “He has won everything. If his name was Messi or Ronaldo, no one would have to argue,” Campos stressed.

For Ronaldo, the Portuguese superstar and Messi have not been nominated for the Ballon d’Or for the second consecutive year. In a recent interview about the meaning of the award, CR7 frankly said: “The Ballon d’Or for me is just fiction.”

Two years ago, Ronaldo also bluntly declared that “the Golden Ball award has lost its inherent value.”