MESSI IS THE KING!

Who’s best player in the world now, Cristiano?

TWO weeks ago, Lionel Messi was beaten by Cristiano Ronaldo in the vote to be crowned the world’s best player. Yesterday, Messi went to Ronaldo’s backyard and set five new records as Barcelona thrashed Real Madrid in El Clasico.

Such was the crushing blow for Real manager Zinedine Zidane, that it left him repeating one word in his post-match press conference: ‘jodido’ (‘f***ed’).

Few are talking about Ronaldo’s Balon D’Or victory this morning. Messi scored with a penalty after Dani Carvajal was sent off for handball, and made another — while wearing just one boot. His stats also make incredible reading; more goals, assists and hat-tricks than any other player in El Clasico history, scorer of the most goals against Real, the most for a single top-flight European side and the first to score more than 15 in 10 successive La Liga seasons. A week ago Zidane became the first Real Madrid manager to guide the team to five trophies in one year — but things change quickly at the Bernabeu.

Such a heavy loss, with Luis Suarez and Aleix Vidal also scoring, leaves Real 14 points behind their rivals in La Liga and, while there appears to be no danger of Zidane losing his job, fingers will be pointed.

‘If we had taken our chances in the first half it would have been a different game,’ said Zidane. ‘Just as I wanted to make the changes we conceded again and we had a man sent off.

‘But the defeat really hurts. I know I will be getting a lot of criticism but I will have to take

it.’