Juventus skipper Giorgio Chiellini claims teammate Cristiano Ronaldo “was robbed of the Ballon d’Or last year, as Real Madrid wanted to stop him winning.”
Chiellini made the claims to Sky Sport Italia during the Gran Gala del Calcio awards on Monday.
Luka Modric, a former teammate of Ronaldo at Madrid, won the Ballon d’Or in 2018.
In Monday’s gala in Paris France, Lionel Messi emerged the winner, taking his Ballon d’Or award to a record six.
The Argentine and Barcelona star has now gone one ahead of Ronaldo.
When asked about the decisions, Chiellini said:“Ronaldo was really robbed of the Ballon d’Or last season, when Real Madrid decided to make sure he couldn’t win it and that was really weird.
“This season, it was more balanced. With all due respect, Modric even in his best season of his career didn’t deserve it. That was a signal from Real Madrid, as they wanted to stop Ronaldo winning it.
“He won the Champions League, but by that logic, (Liverpool defender Virgil) Van Dijk should’ve won it this year, or last year (Antoine) Griezmann, (Paul) Pogba or (Kylian) Mbappe for doing extraordinary things at the World Cup. Modric made no sense.”
