You have to hand it to Cristiano Ronaldo’s PR team.
Whether it be his agent, Jorge Mendes, his sister or other members of his family, when the Portuguese doesn’t win an award, everyone knows about it.
It’s become hugely embarrassing either watching his reactions at awards ceremonies, or worse still, seeing the ceremonies where he couldn’t even be bothered to attend because he knew that he wasn’t going to win.
This year, it appears that FIFA have made quite the exception.
Not only did Ronaldo get into the FIFPro World XI at Mo Salah’s expense, but FIFA also recognised him by presenting him with the Special Award.
It seems that the recognition of his international goals was enough to pander to his ego and allow him to have one more trophy for the mantlepiece collection.
One has to consider how long this charade is going to go on for too. He hasn’t been anywhere close to being the world’s best player for a few years now.
Both at Juventus and now Manchester United, he has scandalously underperformed, but because he scores the odd important goal, that appears to be enough to qualify him for a gong or two.
Surely only a Portuguese win at the World Cup in December would be enough to see him getting close to winning something else this time next year.
If other awards are fashioned for the purpose of keeping Ronaldo happy, the seriousness of the awards themselves will really be called into question.
Cristiano Ronaldo wins #TheBest FIFA Special Award! ???
A record-breaking 115 international goals (and counting)… ? pic.twitter.com/j131RwC9eS
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 17, 2022
And somehow it feels like caughtoffside is an anti Cr7 page