Cristiano Ronaldo 'regrets' leaving Real Madrid and makes Ballon d'Or claim

The Portuguese forward joined Juventus from Madrid in 2018 and helped his side win the Serie A last season but reportedly wishes he had stayed at the Bernabeu

Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly told some of his ex-Real Madrid teammates that he regrets leaving the Spanish giants to join Juventus because he believes he would have won more Ballon d'Ors if he had stayed.

The 34-year-old left Madrid after nine seasons in the Spanish capital to join Juventus for a fee of £88m in 2018, and has gone on to score 37 goals in 61 appearances for the Italian side and won the Serie A and Italian Super Cup last season.

But according to ABC Ronaldo has told former colleagues that he believes he would have added to his five Ballon d'Ors if he had stayed in Spain, with Croatian midfielder Luka Modric winning the award last year and Lionel Messi claiming his sixth Ballon d'Or by winning it this year.

Ronaldo has allegedly openly expressed his disappointment at missing out on the individual award for the last two seasons, and feels he would have had a better chance of winning it if he had stayed at Madrid.

Messi is now the all-time record winner of the award, something which will no doubt come as a blow to Ronaldo, who was drawing with the Argentinean prior to this year.

Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or four times in five years between 2013-2017, but has since had to settle for second place finish in 2018 and third place in 2019.

He has been in lethal form in recent weeks, scoring six goals in his last five games for club and country, and will undoubtedly be looking to continue his fine performances in the festive period, with Juventus fighting on three fronts in December.

They face Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday but have already sealed qualification for the knockout stages of the competition, and then take on Udinese and Sampdoria in Serie A before playing Lazio in the Italian Super Cup final on December 22.