Why Messi and Neymar owe Ronaldo

Football fanatics will understand what the FIFA Ballon d’Or is about. For those that don’t it is almost what the Oscars are to the movie industry or what the Grammys are to the music industry. The annual event honours the best men’s football players of a particular year as voted by international media delegates, national team coaches and captains. The award itself initially was The Ballon d’Or awards which awarded the best European football players and it wasn’t until during the 2010 world cup held in South Africa did the award merge with FIFA World Player of the Year therefore awarding the Ballon d’Or to the recipient of the FIFA award and now called the FIFA Ballon d’Or.

Since the two awards merged they have been dominated by no other than Argentinian Lionel Messi and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo with Messi winning four of the six awards including the latest award (2015 best player in the world) whilst Ronaldo has won two FIFA Ballon d’Or awards in 2013 and 2014 respectively. 

This year saw something interesting happen well as Cristiano put it he feels as though Messi and Neymar owe him money and you’ll never guess what for? For his translation services! Yes Ronaldo who speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English acted as the interpreter for the duo who do not have a very good command of the English language. As the players took to the stage to accept their awards, he acted as an English to Spanish translator for Messi and an English to Portuguese translator for Neymar whilst they posed for pictures and talked to the press. Ronaldo who came in second place said “When we were up there on the stage neither Messi nor Neymar speaks English, and I was their translator,” as he laughed.

Ronaldo went on to say “I spoke with them later and told them not to forget to pay me later for the translation!”

It will be interesting to see what Messi and Neymar have to say as this friendly rivalry.

Let’s see whether Ronaldo will receive his payment for his translation services at the Ballon d’Or awards. Wonder if he has sent them an invoice?

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