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Giorgio Chiellini believes Real Madrid stopped Ronaldo winning the Ballon d'Or
The Juventus defender insists Ronaldo should've won the award last year
Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric went on to win the Ballon d'Or in 2018

Published: 03:18 EDT, 3 December 2019 | Updated: 05:13 EDT, 3 December 2019

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Giorgio Chiellini has sensationally accused Real Madrid of rigging last year's Ballon d'Or by claiming they prevented Cristiano Ronaldo from winning the award.

Ronaldo completed his £100million switch to Juventus in the 2018 summer transfer window before going on to finish as runner-up in the Ballon d'Or voting behind Luka Modric.

On Monday, Lionel Messi was crowned as this year's winner, lifting the prestigious award for a record sixth time and surpassing Ronaldo's haul of five titles.

Giorgio Chiellini believes Real Madrid prevented Cristiano Ronaldo from winning Ballon d'Or

The Juventus defender made the extraordinary claims at the Gran Gala awards on Monday

The Portuguese star opted to skip the ceremony in Paris in order to receive his Serie A player of the year gong at the Gran Gala awards in Milan.

It was at that event where Chiellini launched the impassioned defence of his Juventus team-mate by claiming that Real Madrid wanted their own player to win.

And while the Italian defender believes Ronaldo should've picked up the award last year, he accepts that Messi was the deserved winner this year.

'It's ok that Messi has won the Ballon d'Or this year,' Chiellini said. 'The real theft was last year, Real Madrid decided that Cristiano should not win the Ballon d'Or. It was really strange.

Luka Modric went on to win the award in 2018 – a decision that made 'no sense' to Chiellini

Lionel Messi was crowned as this year's winner, lifting the award for a record sixth time

'Cristiano won the Champions League, [but I suppose] by that logic Van Dijk should have won it this year.

'Maybe last year Griezmann, Pogba or Mbappe should have won for doing extraordinary things at the World Cup. Modric made no sense.'

Modric was the award after guiding Real Madrid to a Champions League title in the 2017-18 campaign before going on to win the Golden Ball at the World Cup in Russia.

However, Modric became the first winner to not even make the shortlist for the next year's award following a disappointing year with Real.