Real Madrid star Toni Kroos doesn't think Lionel Messi deserved to win his seventh Ballon d'Or award.

Paris Saint-Germain superstar Lionel Messi has been hailed this year's Ballon d'Or winner. However, while some are convinced that the Argentine was the rightful winner of the most prestigious individual recognition in the sport, Real Madrid's Toni Kroos begged to disagree.

According to Kroos, who has played with Cristiano Ronaldo in the past, the Ballon d'Or should've been handed to his Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema.

For Kroos, Messi and Ronaldo have been dominant but the player who has been truly “exceptional” recently is Benzema.

“First of all, I must say that I am not interested in individual awards at all,” Kroos said on his podcast via Marca. “However, if there are [such awards], they should be fair. In my opinion, this is not the case at all. For me, Benzema should have been No.1 if you were really picking the best individual player from last year, because I see closely how exceptional he is.”

“There is no doubt that Messi stands next to Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player of this decade and has qualities that others will never have,” he added. “The biggest mistake in the award was [regarding] first place.”

Messi finished with 613 points in the voting, only 33 points ahead of the closest runner-up and Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski.

Last year, the Ballon d'Or award was not handed out by France Football due to the complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic.