Barcelona Team and Lionel Messi were not at the FIFA 16 Football
Awards ceremony on 09 January, 2017 infuriating another world best Diego Maradona.
Argentina legend Maradona and whole world expected that
Lionel Messi with other Barcelona stars Luis Suarez, Neymar and Gerard Pique would
attend the gala in Switzerland but none of their players would attend due to
the Copa del Rey match against Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday. Maradona was upset
his compatriot was not present.
"I'm disappointed with Messi, from watching television
at home you cannot fight anything or anyone – here you can fight," he told
TVE. "I do not know why Barcelona did not come to such an important event.
They have priorities and the priority was for Leo not to come. I think coming
here they could fight more than they would in Barcelona."
Madrid icon Roberto Carlos was also annoyed by Barca's
decision, suggesting "I am sad and disappointed that Leo and his
team-mates have not come. They have many great footballers and all of us would
have liked to see them attend," the former Brazil international said
before the program.
"We all wanted to see Messi, the other big players and
the coach of Barcelona here. It's a FIFA prize. FIFA is the highest authority
in football. So everyone should be here. Cristiano has learned the importance
of this and I think Leo also needs to learn that he must be here. This has to
change. Real Madrid also has a match this week but they are well represented in
Zurich. The obligations to win for both clubs are the same."
Salgado stated that he expected more from Barcelona team, "Real
Madrid are currently the best team in the world so maybe this has affected the
decision of the Barcelona players. Barcelona is wrong for not sending their
best players. I know that the club has had issues with FIFA in the past but
Barcelona needs to understand that FIFA is changing. This is not how you expect
one of the world's biggest clubs to behave."
Ronaldo said while receiving his award, "I’m sorry that
the Barca players were not in attendance but that it was understandable".