By GRAEME YORKE
Jose Mourinho has claimed the Ballon D’Or award has been fixed by FIFA to ensure that it is won by Lionel Messi.
Once again this year the award is a straight shootout between Barcelona magician Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi’s Barca team-mate Andres Iniesta completes the three-man shortlist.
But while Messi has picked up the gong an amazing four times, Ronaldo has only managed it once – something that Mourinho believes is suspicious.
The Special One is used to brushes with authorities but his latest outburst is sure to displease FIFA chief Sepp Blatter.
Asked who was going to win the award, Mourinho said: ‘The Ballon d’Or has already been given. When the heads of football speak and make the campaign, there is nothing you can do.’
Mourinho remains defiant in his belief that Ronaldo is the better player of the two.
He once famously insisted that if Messi is the best player on the planet, then Ronaldo is the ‘best in the universe’.
‘If you are going to give out the Ballon d’Or because a player is the best, give it to Cristiano or Messi,’ he said in October.
‘But I ask: if the two are on the same level, is it normal that one wins four and the other one? It is not.’
