Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the most successful and popular footballers to have graced the game, with many regarding him as the greatest of all time. This is reflected by his Ballon d’Or count, five to be precise, which is the joint-record for most wins by one player alongside rival Lionel Messi.
However, according to his mother, the 34-year-old is deserving of far more recognition than he currently enjoys. Many of his fans strongly believe that the Portuguese icon has been robbed of a few Player of the Year awards and this is a sentiment shared by his parent Dolores Aveiro.
Last year’s Ballon d’Or award comes to mind when discussing the most recent controversies. Despite almost single-handedly guiding Real Madrid to a third-straight Champions League title and captaining Portugal to the FIFA World Cup round of 16, the attacker missed out on France Football’s coveted prize.
The award went to former team-mate Luka Modric who played an influential role in Croatia’s impressive World Cup campaign, finishing as runners-up. Not everyone was happy with this decision, and Ronaldo’s mother was one of them, blaming football mafia for robbing her son of the credit he deserves.
"There is a mafia. That's the right word to define it. Yes, there is a mafia in football," Dolores said, as per Goal.
"If there wasn’t a football mafia, my son would have more [individual] international trophies. If you see everything that happened, you will realize that it is the mafia.
"If he was Spanish or English they would not do what they did to him. But since he's Portuguese and from Madeira... well, this happens."
The Juventus superstar is in the running once more for the Ballon d’Or, as he aims to beat Messi and Van Dijk to the 2019 prize. Leo was the recipient of the recent The Best FIFA’s Men Player prize while Liverpool’s world-class center-back appears to be the odds-on favorite.
Nonetheless, Aveiro sees no other worthy candidate than Cristiano. "I don't know if he will get it, but I am confident. I think he deserves it if we analyze what he did during the season," she added.
