According to Santos, Cristiano Ronaldo should have been crowned UEFA’s 2017-18 Player of the Year

Ronaldo scored 15 goals to lead Real Madrid to a third successive Champions League crown last season but the five-time Ballon d’Or winner lost out to former team-mate Modric.

Modric won the most votes from coaches and journalists as Ronaldo – who left Madrid for Italian champions Juventus in the off-season – opted to skip the Monaco ceremony last month.

Asked about the decision to overlook Portugal captain Ronaldo, Santos told reporters: “The vote for the best of FIFA is not mine. If it was mine, Ronaldo was the champion.

Modric won the most votes from coaches and journalists to take the award

“Ronaldo is the champion for me. And in second place, I’d put Modric. But the rest of votes come from the public, journalists, other coaches, there are many people, so the decision will be announced at the right date.

“There’s a previous list, as I’ve already said, Modric is a fantastic player, that’s why I’ve put him in second. But in this previous election, I think Cristiano should’ve been the winner for all he did at that period of time and specially at the Champions League.”

Ronaldo scored 15 goals to lead Real Madrid to a third successive Champions League crown last season but the five-time Ballon d’Or winner lost out to former team-mate Modric

Santos will be without Ronaldo – who is yet to open his Juventus account – for Portugal’s Nations League match against Italy on September 10. It is Portugal’s first appearance since the World Cup, where the European champions suffered a last-16 exit to Uruguay in Sochi.

“Portugal is a national squad with Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s European champion, the best player in the world. So, Cristiano Ronaldo, such as Joao Moutinho and all the others, Andre Gomes etc, I won’t name them all, they are all very important in this team,” Santos added.

“They achieved an extraordinary triumph for Portugal, they made history. A group of players that have played here and only lost twice, so there’s no with or without Ronaldo. And Ronaldo will be in conditions to play with us for a long time.”

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The post Ronaldo deserved UEFA award ahead of Modric – Santos first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

The 90 minutes ended with both the teams level on 1-1, Lewandowski scoring in the 2nd minute for the Polish and Renato Sanches equalising for the Portuguese in the 33^rd minute.

The game was even level after extra time and it had to be settled in a penalty shoot-out.

Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo led the team in the penalties as Rui Patricio saved Jakub Blaszczykowski’s shot and Ricardo Quaresma scored the deciding penalty for Portugal to give his team a 5-3 win.

The star man was not the usual suspect-Cristiano Ronaldo but rather 18-year-old Renato Sanches who was starting his first game for Portugal.

Sanches scored with a spectacular shot from distance to cancel out Robert Lewandowski‘s early goal for Poland, and then converted his penalty in the shoot-out.

Renato Sanches (R) celebrates after s coring against Poland at Euro 2016.Source AFP

Portugal coach Fernando Santos was pleased by the performance of the teenager stressing that Sanches’ task was to change things.

“Things weren’t going our way and I called Renato to change something. and we were lucky enough to have him score,” Santos said.

“He played a great game. He is still growing and has a lot to offer. He will be a better player in the future.” He added.

Sanches became the youngest player to score in a knockout round at the continental competition at 18 years and 316 days old.

Portugal reached the semifinals of the football tournament without winning any of their matches in regular time while Poland saw their luck of winning a penalty shoot-out in the round-of-16 run out.

Portugal will play the winner between Belgium or Wales in Lyon on July 6.

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