Cristiano Ronaldo tips Lionel Messi to win this year's Ballon d'Or

Messi(4) and Ronaldo(2) have won the Ballon d’Or for six consecutive years between them

Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has tipped his ‘arch rival’ Lionel Messi to win the prestigious Ballon d’Or this year reports The Mirror. In a manner very uncharacteristic of himself, the Portuguese has apparently given up hopes on him retaining the trophy and feels Messi is in pole position to win his fifth Ballon d’Or later this year

Ronaldo was seen making the claims in a candid television interview on the Jonathan Ross Show which is to be aired this Saturday.

The interview touched upon various aspects of his personal life which included one of the most talked about issues in world sport- his rivalry and relationship(or a lack of it) with Barcelona icon Lionel Messi.

When asked who he thought would win football’s most coveted individual honour this year, Ronaldo had this to say.

“To be honest I think Messi is going to win this year because this kind of trophy, it depends on votes. You win competitions, you win Champions League you win the league in terms of individual.”

But the forward added though he had the best season of his career personally, his side’s lack of trophies would ultimately cost him.

“I did probably the best season of my career which is good and I was the highest scorer in Europe [but] it’s all about votes, it’s difficult and to be honest, I’m not very worried about that because as I said many times, I never [thought I’d] win three times to be honest.”

Lionel Messi had one of the best years of his career as he lead Barcelona to a treble last season. He ended up with 58 goals in all competitions. He scored the only goal in Barca’s win over Atletico Madrid towards the end of the season to secure the Liga title and also scored twice in the Copa Del Ray final as Barca beat Atletic Bilbao.

Messi and me respect each other: Ronaldo

Ronaldo also played down constant speculations about his supposed rivalry with Messi. He has made it clear that he has a normal relationship with the Argentine and though they aren’t the best of friends, they respect each other.

“I don’t have rivals, we have a normal relationship. We shared this stage at FIFA [for] eight years. No one has done that in the past - only us - so it’s good. I have a good relationship with him, he plays for one club, I play for another club.”

“He won the best for him, I won the best for me. We have a good relationship, we are not home friends but we respect each other,” he said.