ROME, NOVEMBER 23 (REUTERS): Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri believes Cristiano Ronaldo deserves to win the Ballon D’Or, following media reports that the forward has not been short-listed for the award’s final three for the first time since 2010. The Portugal international has won the prize, run by French magazine France Football and awarded to the world’s best player annually, five times and finished as runner-up five times since 2007. Yet Italian and French media have reported that the podium for this year’s prize will be made up of Paris St Germain’s Kylian Mbappe and Luka Modric and Raphael Varane of Real Madrid. The winner will be named at a ceremony in Paris on Dec. 3. “He is doing well and yesterday he trained well. For what he has done, as I’ve said several times, he would deserve the Ballon D’Or,” Allegri said. Allegri shot down suggestions that his side are facing an injury crisis in midfield ahead of the visit of SPAL in Serie A on Saturday. Sami Khedira and Emre Can are sidelined with injuries, but their absences do not overly concern the coach. “We will need to play with who we have,” he said. “(Blaise) Matuidi returned today because he needed a few days of rest. We have (Miralem) Pjanic and (Rodrigo) Bentancur available, we will find a solution with who we’ve got. We are not in an emergency.”
