Wayne Rooney admitted that Luka Modric was indeed worthy of winning the Ballon d’Or, but he stressed that if he was given the opportunity to choose, he would definitely vote for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo was forced to bite his fingers at the 2018 Ballon d’Or event. Because he failed to add to his personal title collection.
The Portuguese superstar was defeated by his own teammate at Real Madrid, Modric. Ronaldo himself only ranked second.
Thus his dominance along with Lionel Messi which has been going on for a decade has stopped. Ronaldo himself was disappointed to fail to win the award.
Fantatic
Modric won because of two big achievements. The first he helped Madrid win the Champions League.
Then he helped the Croatian national team enter the 2018 World Cup final. Rooney did not deny the brilliance of the agile midfielder.
“Luka Modric is a fantastic player,” Rooney told DAZN. “I think the bait is good and the way he moves with the ball.”
“Actually it doesn’t look that fast in the eye, but when you play against it, it glides past the player. He’s a fantastic player, he has a great career,” he said.
Loyal to Ronaldo
Rooney said that Modric indeed deserved to win the award. But he said that if he was given the opportunity to vote, he would choose his former Manchester United colleague.
“I don’t think he is the best player in the world but in terms of years is he worthy? Of course.”
“He has had a great year with Real Madrid and clearly has a great performance as captain with Croatia,” he continued.
“I think if it is a player’s choice, I will choose Ronaldo this year, but not take anything from Luka Modric. He won it so he deserved it,” he said.