Toni Kroos has spoken out against the decision to award Leo Messi the 2021 Ballon d’Or prize, saying “it’s absolutely not deserved”.

The Real Madrid midfielder, despite praising the Argentine’s ability, believes that the award should’ve instead gone to his club colleague, Karim Benzema.

For Kroos, Messi shouldn’t have even been in the top three, as he felt that Robert Lewandowski should’ve been second and Jorginho third.

“First of all, I must say that I am not interested in individual awards at all. However, if there are [such awards], they should be fair. In my opinion, this is not the case at all,” he said on his podcast.

“For me, Benzema should have been No.1 if you were really picking the best individual player from last year, because I see closely how exceptional he is.

“There is no doubt that Messi stands next to Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player of this decade and has qualities that others will never have. The biggest mistake in the award was [regarding] first place,” he said.

(The PUNCH)