It was no surprise this year that Cristiano Ronaldo picked up his fifth Ballon d'Or award in Paris.

The Real Madrid superstar is now level with Barcelona's Lionel Messi, with the Argentine forward finishing second in the standings as Neymar took the bronze medal.

The two have picked up the last 10 awards between them, with Kaka the last man to break the duopoly back in 2007.

As such, many rate both Ronaldo and Messi as possibly the two finest players on the planet, although, many fans disagree on what order they should be placed in.

After he picked up the accolade, Ronaldo announced to the world that he believes he is the finest player to have ever graced the game and to be fair, he does have some evidence to support that claim.

But, there are many arguments against his claim and one of them comes from another Argentine icon; Diego Maradona.

When asked in an interview with AS about CR7's statement, he had a pretty epic response.

MARADONA'S BRILLIANT RESPONSE

Diego Maradona: "Tell him to stop taking the piss (smiles)."

Interviewer: "If Cristiano is the best in history, what does that make you?"

Maradona: "That's why I said stop taking the piss."

That's the way to respond.

He then went on to discuss the Ballon d'Or as whole and provided a very interesting insight.

MARADONA ON THE BALLON D'OR

Interviewer: "What do you think of the Ballon d’Or as a prize?"

Maradona: "Bufff… As a trophy… It’s very difficult to give just one Ballon d’Or to a player. Because giving one to Cristiano and to Messi… it’s boring now."

Interviewer: "Is there nobody else in the elite who deserves it?"

Maradona: "You’d have to put Cavani, Mbappé, Ibrahimovic in the fight. I don’t know."

Interviewer: "Back in your day, non-European players couldn’t win the Ballon d’Or…"

Maradona "No, no… I would have more than Cristiano and Messi."

In reality, it is very unlikely that a player other than Ronaldo or Messi will win the award, with Neymar perhaps the only person close to dethroning the duo.