Cristiano Ronaldo wouldn’t have enjoyed coming third behind Lionel Messi and Virgil van Dijk at FIFA’s ‘The Best’ awards earlier this week.

In fact, it seems he was so unimpressed that he didn’t even turn up to the ceremony in Milan.

In truth, it hasn’t been the greatest 2019 for the Portuguese superstar who’s scored 15 goals in 24 appearances for Juventus in this calendar year.

Most strikers would love that kind of record but by Ronaldo’s high standards, that tally is fairly mediocre.

We shouldn’t be too surprised that Ronaldo is slowing down considering he turns 35 in February.

We’re familiar with him smashing all sorts of goalscoring records but he’s actually closing in on a rather embarrassing record in Italy.

According to Ultimo Uomo in Italy, Ronaldo is statistically the second worst free-kick taker in Serie A history.

He’s had 18 attempts in the league without scoring. Only Camillo Ciano, who played for Frosinone last season, went longer without scoring (21 attempts).

When you include his Champions League attempts, Ronaldo has gone 24 free-kicks without scoring for Juventus.

He’s hit the wall 15 times, missed the target twice and had his effort saved seven times.

Incidentally, teammate Miralem Pjanic has scored once in just six free-kick attempts.

Think it’s about time Cristiano handed over free-kick duty to Pjanic.

While Messi was picking up his accolade in Milan, Ronaldo was posting cryptic Instagram posts about "patience and persistence."

"Patience and persistence are two characteristics that differentiate the professional from the amateur," he wrote.

"Everything that is big today has started small. You can't do everything, but do everything you can to make your dreams come true.

"And keep in mind that after night always comes dawn."

Perhaps he was talking about his dreadful free-kick record when mentioning "patience and persistence"...

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