If the list of honours Cristiano Ronaldo has collected for club and country is impressive, his haul of individual accolades can only be described as astonishing.

The 34-year-old is one of the favourites to scoop the 2019 Ballon d’Or after he was last year denied the chance pull ahead of Lionel Messi as the most frequent winner of the award.

Luka Modric took out the 2018 edition to break the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly and leave the pair tied on five apiece.

While the decision was somewhat surprising to most observers, it was downright outrageous in the eyes of Ronaldo’s sisters.

In response to Modric’s clean sweep of individual titles last year, Elma Aveiro wrote on Instagram, per The Independent: “Unfortunately this is the world we live in, rotten, with mafia and f******g money. The power of God is a lot greater than all this rottenness. God takes his time but he doesn’t fail.”

Katia Aveiro, his other sister, also posted a picture of him holding the Ballon d’Or trophy with the caption: “Best player in the world….for those who understand football of course.”

Now, Ronaldo’s mother has weighed in on the perceived injustice, suggesting the Juventus forward is being held back by his nationality and the malevolence of certain individuals.

“There is a mafia. That's the right word to define it. Yes, there is a mafia in football,” Dolores Aveiro told the Portuguese media, per Goal.

“If there wasn’t a football mafia, my son would have more [individual] international trophies. If you see everything that happened, you will realise that it is the mafia.

“If he was Spanish or English they would not do what they did to him. But since he's Portuguese and from Madeira... well, this happens.”

It’s a bold statement considering there are 15 nationalities represented in this year’s 30-man Ballon d’Or shortlist, which doesn’t feature a single Spanish player.

Nevertheless, Ronaldo is rightfully among the frontrunners alongside his eternal rival Messi and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane.

It’s likely to be an extremely close call, but Ronaldo’s mother believes there can only be one winner so long as they are chosen on merit.

“I don't know if he will get it, but I am confident. I think he deserves it if we analyse what he did during the season," she said.

We’ll have to wait until the official ceremony in Paris on December 2 to find out.