NO SURPRISE

A few people might have been stunned to see Cristiano Ronaldo lifting the Ballon d’Or trophy a few weeks back, but, Gerard Pique is not one of them. He had the expectation that the Portuguese superstar would grab the award this time around.

It’s the Barcelona striker Lionel Messi who had been winning this prestigious award since the last 4 years and he was a strong contender to win it again, but, that didn’t happen eventually as Ronaldo ended up getting a bit more votes than him.

Pique who has played with Ronaldo in the past when both of them were at Old Trafford said that he likes the way the 28 years old forward plays the game and he respects him both as a player and as an individual.

When asked about Ronaldo winning the Ballon d’Or award, Pique said, “I was not surprised at all to see that happen. In fact, it pleased me. He deserved that. He had been willing for that award since quite some time and that’s why he reacted in that fashion when he eventually had it.”

“It’s been a while since I last had a chat with him. We haven’t conversed off late, but, I just want to say that I have lot of respect for the man. When I had made my way into the senior team of United, I had got a lot of help from him.”
Pique had left Manchester United in 2008 i.e. 1 year before Ronaldo’s departure from there. He has been at Barcelona since then and has already made more than 250 appearances for them. He has scored a few goals too for the Spanish giants, 20 to be precise which is quite good for a player who stands at a deep position.