'If Messi doesn't deserve the Ballon d'Or I know nothing about football' - Atletico's Filipe Luis

Atletico Madrid full-back Filipe Luis has said something regarding the 2018 Ballon d'Or banter, demanding that Lionel Messi ought to have scooped the honor in front of Luka Modric.

Winning the Champions League and achieving the last of the World Cup saw the Croatian talented the pined for respect, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griezmann taking second and third place individually.

Kylian Mbappe, who lifted the Kope Trophy, made the fourth place for his adventures with Paris Saint-Germain and winning the World Cup, which means Messi needed to agree to fifth.

Filipe Luis, nonetheless, regardless of playing for an immediate opponent of Barca in La Liga, trusts that the Argentine's endeavors in 2018 – and to be sure for the larger part of his profession – ought to have landed him the best spot on the platform.

"When I get on the pitch my central goal is to not give the adversaries a chance to do anything, be that Messi or some other player," the Brazilian said in a meeting with Globoesporte.

"In any case, after such a large number of years I see a person who keeps on reexamining himself - he's played out wide and now he plays in the center.

"Abruptly, I hear that he didn't have the right to win the Ballon d'Or in light of the fact that he had an awful season in 2018?

"He won La Liga, he won the Copa del Rey, he was the best scorer in Europe and gave heaps of help.

"Whoever thinks Messi doesn't merit the Ballon d'Or isn't seeing what I'm seeing. Either that or I don't know anything about football."

With Atleti sitting only five behind the Blaugrana in the race for the Primera Division title the 33-year-old knows that he won't win any admirers for his remarks, yet minds little as he believes he is just expressing actualities.

"He's the best player at Barcelona," he included. "He scores objectives and when he doesn't do that he gives helps or begins the plays that lead to objectives – and he's done that throughout the previous 10 years.

"My competition with him on the pitch is limitless, however off the pitch my profound respect for him is likewise unbounded.

"He's Argentine and plays at an adversary club, and I realize I won't win any admirers by saying favorable things about him. In any case, I'm simply being earnest."