Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski has seemingly taken a dig at Lionel Messi regarding the Ballon d'Or and FIFA The Best awards.
After being beaten to the 2021 Ballon d'Or award by Messi in November last year, Lewandowski then pipped the Argentine to The FIFA Best Men's Player for 2021 prize in January.
Scroll through the mini-gallery above to see Lewandowski and Messi's goal contributions across all competitions for their clubs so far this season, per Transfermarkt
During his Golden Ball acceptance speech, Messi said that Lewandowski deserved to be rewarded with the 2020 edition of the prestigious accolade, which was unfortunately cancelled by award organisers France football due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite his praise for the Poland international, however, the Paris Saint-Germain attacker did not vote for the Bayern marksman for The Best FIFA award, opting instead to name Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, and Karim Benzema as his chosen three.
Lewandowski, though, did include the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner in his top three, and the 33-year-old has since suggested that he is confused about Messi's failure to vote for him after what the Argentina captain said in November.
"I voted for [Messi] because I appreciate what he's done. Messi said he would vote for me for the Ballon d'Or, but he didn't vote for me for The Best," Lewandowski told Polish magazine Pilka Noza.
"That's his decision. But anyway, I won the prize, so it's easier for me to accept it."
Lewandowski then went on to state his belief that the FIFA prize is bigger than the Golden Ball.
"Lately, I've been thinking about these two awards, FIFA's The Best and the Ballon d'Or, and I've come to the conclusion that the FIFA award matters more," he added.
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"Only journalists vote for the Ballon d'Or… I'm happy that the professionals vote for The Best.
"The team captains and the coaches, they can assess our performance in a realistic and objective way, because they know how much each game, each record, and each injury costs us."
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