“So respect to him (Cristiano Ronaldo) and congratulations on a well-deserved La Liga victory. But Messi remains, by a distance the most complete and most dangerous footballer in the world. Some think that to win the Ballon D’Or, it’s essential to win either the league title or the Champions League. I predict that the voters in this year’s award will prove that to be false, and Messi, quite rightly, will win again.”