Cristiano was left out of the top-ten players of 2023 and you won't believe his reaction

Cristiano Ronaldo is still one of the best players in the world. Despite being 38 years old and nearing the end of his professional career, he continues to prove week after week that he has enough talent, discipline and intelligence to compete with players much younger than him and continue to make a difference on the pitch.

That much was clear during 2023. Considering his performances with Al-Nassr in the Pro League and Asian Champions League, and with the Portugal national team in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, he scored 53 goals. That allowed him to become the world's top scorer for the year, beating stars like Manchester City's Erling Haaland, Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappé and Bayern Munich's Harry Kane. Moreover, he is the one who achieved this record the most times, as for several years he achieved it with Real Madrid during the last decade.

It is therefore surprising that he was not chosen among the ten best players in the world in 2023. The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) published a ranking with the most outstanding footballers of the year and the absence of CR7 was one of the most striking details.

The first place was given to Erling Haaland, who scored almost as many goals as Cristiano (50), but also won the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League and European Super Cup this year. Then there are Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, and further back complete the top-ten other stars such as Rodri, Jude Bellingham, Kevin De Bruyne, Harry Kane, Bernardo Silva, Vinicius Junior and Lautaro Martinez.

What was his reaction?

Cristiano Ronaldo did not hesitate to show his dissatisfaction with this ranking. The Portuguese media A Bola shared on Instagram the news of the IFFHS ranking and the striker posted a comment from his official account, where he has more than 600 million followers: three emojis with laughing faces and a monkey covering his eyes.