Cristiano Ronaldo commented with tears of laughter in a Diario AS video on Instagram about Lionel Messi not being worthy of winning the eighth Golden Ball.

Today, October 31, AS posted a video on Instagram in which Editor-in-Chief Tomas Roncero commented on Messi receiving the 2023 Golden Ball from France Football magazine . In this video, Roncero said in Spanish that Messi came to Inter Miami to retire, but he played as if he had retired since he was playing for PSG.

“It’s true that Messi won the World Cup, but with six penalties,” Roncero said. “The World Cup also took place 10 months ago. Messi has won eight Golden Balls, but he should only be worthy of five awards. Messi is holding the Golden Ball of Andres Iniesta or Xavi, a player who won six titles in one year. Robert Lewandowski season and now top scorer of all competitions Erling Haaland”.

Ronaldo with the account “cristiano” commented under a video saying Messi only deserves five Golden Balls. Photo: screenshot

AS ‘s video was liked by Ronaldo, and he commented with four “laughing until tears” emojis. Ronaldo’s comment received more than 16,000 likes and more than 4,000 responses in just six hours, while AS ‘s video only had 13,000 likes.

This is not the first time Ronaldo has supported posts criticizing Messi on social networks. After the Argentine superstar won the Golden Ball in 2021, Ronaldo also liked a post criticizing Messi on Instagram , then commented: “Factos”, meaning “truth” in Portuguese.

Ronaldo is the most followed person on Instagram , with 609 million. Messi ranked second with 490 million followers. The two superstars also own eight of the 10 most liked posts on this social network.

Messi took five penalties at the 2022 World Cup, scoring four goals. In addition, he also scored three other goals, helping Argentina win the championship after defeating France on penalty kicks. In the four previous World Cups, Messi only took a penalty kick once, but did not score a goal.

After scoring in every round at the 2022 World Cup, and receiving the Best Player award, Messi was awarded his eighth Golden Ball by France Football magazine on the evening of October 30 in Paris. He surpassed Silver Ball Erling Haaland, even though the Norwegian striker won three titles with Man City, broke the record for scoring goals in a Premier League season and won the Champions League top scorer.

Ronaldo has won five Golden Balls, the most recent being six years ago, when he equaled the “score” 5-5 with Messi. Since then, Messi has won three more Golden Balls in odd-numbered years, going up 8-5. The French magazine calls Messi “infinity”, with a horizontal number 8 symbol.

Ronaldo was not nominated for the 2023 Golden Ball, after a forgettable World Cup with only one goal. He has also moved to Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia since January 2023, causing his chances of winning another Golden Ball to decrease. The 38-year-old striker still retains his desire to play and wants to participate in Euro 2024, even the 2026 World Cup.