In case you’ve forgotten that Dutch soccer legend Johan Cruyff is also Barcelona soccer legend Johan Cruyff, the midfield maestro’s latest comments regarding a certain Real Madrid superstar are here to remind you.
Cruyff called Cristiano Ronaldo’s back-to-back Ballon D’Or awards “absurd”, noting that Toni Kroos or another German or Bayern Munich player should’ve won it on account of trophies (which kinda waylays one of Cruyff’s Ballons D’Or but we’ll get to that later).
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You know, trophies, like the UEFA Champions League title Ronaldo won this past season.
From Goal.com:“It’s absurd that for the second year in a row a player has been given the award who did not both play excellent and win the most trophies.
“Back in 2013, Bayern Munich won every single trophy out there, yet Cristiano Ronaldo still won the award instead of a player like Toni Kroos or someone else from Bayern.
“In 2014, Kroos was a key player again for the team that won the World Cup, yet he was not even among the final three nominees. Ronaldo was completely anonymous at the World Cup...
“Let this be clear, I cannot take this Fifa award seriously anymore.”
Clearly Cruyff will be giving back his 1974 Ballon D’Or award since he only won La Liga and didn’t capture the World Cup or Champions League in that season, while 1974 runner-up Franz Beckenbauer won the Bundesliga, Champions League and the World Cup. Hand it over, Johan. Any minute now.
I’m a longtime admirer of Cruyff, but this batch of quotes is about as ridiculous as it gets. Ronaldo scored 51 goals in 47 matches for Real Madrid last season, adding another five for Portugal. No, an injured Ronaldo and A Seleccao didn’t escape the Group of Death with Germany, the US and Ghana, but that was far from his fault.
