2021 Ballon d’Or Award winner, Lionel Messi has stated that Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski was actually the deserving winner for last year’s award.
Messi won a record-breaking seventh Ballon d’Or on Monday night but poured encomiums Lewandowski for his performance in 2020 but the award was cancelled, no thanks to COVID-19 pandemic.
But Lewandowski could at least find solace in the fact that the man who defeated him, Messi himself, showed nothing but class when he took to the stage to collect his trophy.
Having thanked his FC Barcelona and PSG teammates, as well as everybody involved in the Argentina set-up, Messi was sure to take the time to address his biggest rival for the gong.
According to Get French Football News, Messi said directly to Lewandowski: “You deserve your Ballon D’Or. Last year, everyone was in agreement to say that you were the big winner.”
And countless footballing figures were in agreement with Messi’s sentiments because it was almost universally agreed that Lewandowski would have been the deserving 2020 Ballon d’Or winner.
Gary Lineker even tweeted in reaction to the Argentine’s comments: “Messi agrees. Messi’s right. Give @lewy_official the award. Such an easy thing to do, and the right thing to do.”
Whether or not France Football decides to retrospectively give the award to Lewandowski remains to be seen, but there’s no denying that it would be scandalous if he never won a Ballon d’Or title.
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