RONALDO DESERVES WORLD AWARD

Jose Mourinho has declared that his star man, Cristiano Ronaldo, is more worthy of the World Player of the year award for 2012 than Lionel Messi. Messi has won the award the last three years, but Mourinho has tipped Ronaldo as more deserving of the title when it is next awarded.

Mourinho’s claims are based around the impact that Ronaldo has had on Real’s La Liga success this year. Despite Messi outscoring Ronaldo, the argument goes that scoring 46 league goals in a team that won the title should be enough to win the Ballon d’Or award. His impact was enough to guide Real to the league title, whereas Barca and Messi finished a distant second and their only hope of silverware in 2012 comes in the Copa Del Rey final next week.

The Special One declared that “Cristiano has to win the Ballon d’Or, not because he has been the top goalscorer, he was that already last season, but because his goals have delivered a title.”

He went on to claim that Messi’s 50 goals, as with Ronaldo’s 42 last year(when he won the top scorer award), “weren’t worth anything” as they did not contribute towards a league title. His argument has ground in that Ronaldo was indeed top scorer in La Liga last season, and outscored Messi in all competitions too. Yet it was Messi who ran out with the Ballon d’Or, in a season that he and Barca picked up the La Liga and Champions Leageu titles.

Mourinho himself has now won seven league titles in four different countries. He believes that this season’s efforts have been the finest achievement of his career to date. With Spain seen as having Europe’s top two sides at the moment, as well as the world’s top two players it is understandable why. To overcome Barca must make any victory ever sweeter.