🗳 Uefa 'rigged' Team of the Year to include Cristiano Ronaldo | OneFootball

Cristiano Ronaldo was named in the Uefa Team of the Year on Wednesday. But maybe he shouldn’t have been.

The Juventus star featured in a four-man frontline alongside Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski and Sadio Mané.

But the team was only supposed to include three forwards.

In a story now confirmed by a source speaking to L’Équipe, the Daily Mail reported that the team was shuffled around in order to include Ronaldo.

The Portuguese was voted fourth in the category for attacking players. So Uefa went against their own plans and dropped a midfielder – N’Golo Kanté – and replaced him with Ronaldo.

“This is really not good,” the source told L’Équipe.

“It is effectively vote rigging.

“Such is Ronaldo’s popularity at a senior level within the organisation, alarm bells sounded when he did not make the cut and, as a result, the formation was changed. It makes you wonder what else they get up to.”

A Uefa source responded, claiming the formation change was nothing out of the ordinary. They also highlighted Ronaldo’s importance in Portugal’s Uefa Nations League win.

“The formation for this year’s team of the year was chosen to reflect the votes of the fans in parallel with the players’ achievements in Uefa competitions.

“As a result, there are five UEFA Champions League winners and four UEFA Nations League finalists (including one winner).

“The formation changes on a regular basis and this year is no exception.’

Five of the previous six years saw Uefa select a team with three midfielders and three forwards.

Ronaldo also recently missed out on the EA Sports Fifa Team of the Year.