Lionel Messi was crowned the best FIFA Men’s Player 2019 on Monday night, but the Portugal national team had their own award to hand out.
The Barcelona superstar pipped both Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk to the award in Milan, as he registered yet another superb campaign with 51 goals and 22 assists in just 50 games while winning more trophies with the Catalan giants.
SEE MORE: ‘Robbed’ and ‘rigged’ – These fans react to Lionel Messi landing Best FIFA Men’s Player 2019 award
Nevertheless, Ronaldo was also coming off the back of a successful season for both Juventus and Portugal, while Van Dijk won the Champions League with Liverpool.
In turn, there are arguments to support all three contenders but ultimately it was Messi who got the award, and by a healthy margin as seen in the tweet below, but it sparked an amusing reaction from the official Portuguese national team account.
? #TheBest FIFA Men's Player 2019
? #LeoMessi
? #VirgilVanDijk
? #CristianoRonaldo #TheBest | #FIFAFootballAwards pic.twitter.com/cObUfjeDYG— #TheBest ? (@FIFAcom) September 23, 2019
As seen below, they posted a tweet crowning Ronaldo as the ‘best ever’, seemingly in a direct dig at FIFA over snubbing the Portuguese superstar for their award.
Unsurprisingly, that sparked quite a reaction on Twitter in the responses, but it’s Messi who goes away with the official award having now being crowned winner a record sixth time.
Ronaldo perhaps dropped a huge hint that he wasn’t going to win it earlier on in the evening when it was reported that he wasn’t attending the event in Milan, as he opted to stay in Turin instead.
Time will tell if we get to hear from him on the snub from FIFA this year, but he’s got the firm backing of his country behind him who believe that he is still in a league of his own, while many will consider Messi a deserving winner after another stellar campaign of his own.
.@Cristiano pic.twitter.com/tASzCHHcMP
— Portugal (@selecaoportugal) September 23, 2019
