'The ugliest Ballon d'Or in history' - Boxing star in bizarre Messi rant
Robin Bairner
- Updated: 26 Jul 2021 20:18 BST
- 3 min read
Lionel Messi is the favourite for the 2021 Ballon d’Or – but French professional boxer Tony Yoka doesn’t see it that way.
Indeed, the super heavyweight, who has a professional record of 10 wins and 0 losses, elected to take to Instagram in a bizarre rant against the Barcelona icon, who is presently out of contract.
Yoka, who won the gold medal in the super-heavyweight division at the 2016 Olympics, made his argument very publicly but was forced into backing down in an embarrassing manner.
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Yoka on Messi
“We live in a time when we want to give the Ballon d’Or to a player who finishes third in La Liga, who was eliminated in the round of 16 of the Champions League by losing 4-1 at home (6th year in a row being humiliated in Champions League), who lost the final of the Supercopa de Espana by taking a red card... Just because he scored 4 goals against Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia!
“The Copa America, this competition with two groups of five teams, where the top four qualify for the quarter-finals.
If he wins it, it will be the ugliest and most busted Ballon d'Or in history.
- Tony Yoka“29 goals in La Liga, 24 scored against the bottom seven times in the league. Five goals in the Champions League, including four penalties.
“If he wins it, it will be the ugliest and most busted Ballon d'Or in history. To win it with such a bad season, scoring goals that didn't win your team anything. 0 goals against Real Madrid for 4 years, 0 goals against Atlético Madrid, 0 against big clubs, nothing. Thank you, Osasuna, Eibar and Getafe.”
Opta, however, stepped in to put Yoka right.
“Lionel Messi has scored 30 goals in La Liga last season – including 11 against the bottom seven teams in the league. Fact checking,” it posted, with a cheeky boxing glove emoji as a clear dig towards Yoka.
Yoka, who has 388k followers on his Instagram page, backed down to the diminutive Messi by deleting his post.
