Cristiano Ronaldo was not in attendance to see Lionel Messi win FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player of the Year award on Monday evening.

The Portuguese star skipped the event in Milan, which is perhaps a sign that he was aware of the outcome before it was announced.

It’s the second straight year that Ronaldo has spurned his invitation. He wasn’t present to see Luka Modric claim the prize in 2018, either.

The 34-year-old was among the three finalists - Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk was the other - but he wasn’t given much of a chance of winning.

Messi scored more goals than Ronaldo last season while Van Dijk established himself as the world’s best centre-back en route to winning the Champions League.

There was the UEFA Nations League triumph, though, which Ronaldo added along with the Serie A title with Juventus.

But when their stats and respective importance to their teams are considered, it’s no surprise that Ronaldo missed out.

Portugal tweet after Messi's success

His supporters quickly came to his defence and no tweet was more emphatic than that posted by the Portugal national team just minutes after the winner was announced.

FIFA announced Messi as the winner on Twitter at 8:57pm. At 9:02pm, Portugal tagged Ronaldo in a tweet that contained an image of the forward with the message: The Best Ever.

Clearly, the Euro 2016 winners aren’t pleased that their golden child has been snubbed.

Ronaldo received support from Portugal coach Fernando Santos, who gave his first vote to the country’s leading goalscorer.

So too did Portuguese journalist Vitor Serpa.

Yet one can only imagine how Ronaldo is taking this back at home.

Messi had endured something of a drought with individual accolades, his last major success coming when he won the 2015 Ballon d’Or award.

So to see his main rival back on the podium, with the centre of attention entirely on him, must pain Ronaldo.

And more agony could come his way when the winner of the 2019 Ballon d’Or is announced.

In the past three years, the winner of FIFA’s The Best award has gone on to win the Ballon d’Or in the same year.

And if Messi triumphs later on this year, he will go one ahead of Ronaldo with six.