Cristiano Ronaldo concedes Ballon d'Or to Barcelona forward Lionel Messi as 'it's all about votes'

Ronaldo and Messi have won the Ballon d'Or between them for the past seven years and are the two favourites to dominate again this season

Cristiano Ronaldo at the premiere of his new film 'Ronaldo' (Getty Images)

Cristiano Ronaldo has conceded his chances of winning a third straight Fifa Ballon d’Or award because Lionel Messi has enjoyed a successful year with Barcelona and will be favoured by those who vote for the winner.

Ronaldo has won the award, which represents the best player in the world for the past calendar year, three times during his career, with his first coming in 2008 before his back-to-back successes in 2013 and 2014.

However, in between those years came four years dominated by Messi, and Ronaldo has admitted that the Barcelona superstar is likely to take the Ballon d’Or back from his grasp after winning the Champions League and La Liga last season.

Speaking on ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show to promote his new self-titled film Ronaldo, the Real Madrid forward said: “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. 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.”

Ronaldo went on to say that he is still young enough to win the award back, and despite being at the age of 30, believes he can play on for up to another seven years.

When asked by Ross whether he can win the Ballon d’Or again, Ronaldo answered: “Well I’m still young I think… I think I can, I want to play six, seven years more and I think I’m still able to win collective things because if you don’t win collective things, you cannot win individual awards.”

The two-time Champions League winner also revealed that he does not have a rivalry with Messi despite the two playing for Real and Barcelona and being the two standout players in the world for the last seven years.

I don’t have rivals. We have a normal relationship

&#13; <p>Cristiano Roanldo on Lionel Messi</p>&#13;

He added that the pair actually have a good relationship, despite the intense El Clasico rivalry between Real and the Catalans, and said that he does respect Messi for his achievements in the game.

“I don’t have rivals,” said Ronaldo when asked about Messi. “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.”