Take five: Cristiano Ronaldo sacrifices the youngsters in the Ballon d'Or battle

The Portuguese star continues his strikes

Cristiano Ronaldo is still sacrificing young players in his long-running feud with French magazine "France Football" over the Ballon d'Or. The Portugal captain, now at Saudi club Al-Nassr, has refused to play ball once again.

Barcelona's Lamine Yamal won the Kopa Trophy for the best young player under 21 at the ceremony in London in the early hours of last Tuesday morning.

The Spain star topped the voting, a process decided by former Ballon d'Or winners. Ronaldo was supposed to be among them.

He wasn't. French newspaper "L'Équipe" confirmed the Portuguese refrained from voting, as did France's Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini.

That makes it the fifth time Ronaldo has skipped the Kopa Trophy vote. He last took part in 2021, when he handed his pick to England's Mason Greenwood.

Ever since that 2021 edition, the "Madeira Rocket" has stayed away, all because of a war of words with Pascal Ferré, then editor-in-chief of "France Football".

It all kicked off when Ferré claimed in the press that Ronaldo had told him his greatest ambition was to finish his career with more Ballons d'Or than his Argentine rival Lionel Messi.

Those comments infuriated Ronaldo. He hit back on Instagram, denying the exchange and accusing the former editor-in-chief of lying and of wrongly using his name.

From then on, Ronaldo has stayed away from the Ballon d'Or ceremony. No competing, no attending as a guest, no voting for the Kopa Trophy winner.

Ronaldo has also made no secret of his unhappiness with the magazine's choices for the Ballon d'Or itself, not least because he hasn't won it since his last success in 2017.