Jorge Mendes has said Cristiano Ronaldo remains the "best player in history" despite Lionel Messi picking up his sixth Ballon d'Or award on Monday. 

The Barcelona superstar won the prestigious trophy again at a ceremony in Paris to move one clear of Ronaldo in the all-time winners list:

The Juventus star finished third in the voting behind Messi and Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk.

But Ronaldo's agent Mendes, speaking after the forward collected his Serie A player of the year award at the Gran Gala in Milan, believes his client is still a cut above the rest, per MailOnline's Nathan Salt:

"Cristiano is the best player in history, and you know it."

Ronaldo was never likely to win the 2019 award.

He played a key role in Juve winning Serie A again in 2018-19, but his league return of 21 goals was his worst in a season since his final campaign at Manchester United.

Messi, meanwhile, netted 36 goals and provided 13 assists in 34 appearances as Barca won La Liga, and Van Dijk was vital to Liverpool's UEFA Champions League win.

Juve centre-back Giorgio Chiellini, though, believes Ronaldo should already have six Ballons d'Or because he should have won it for a third successive year in 2018, when it instead went to Luka Modric, per Sky Sport Italia (h/t Salt):

"Ronaldo was really robbed of the Ballon d'Or last season, when Real Madrid decided to make sure he couldn't win it, and that was really weird. This season, it was more balanced. With all due respect, Modric even in his best season of his career didn't deserve it. That was a signal from Real Madrid, as they wanted to stop Ronaldo winning it.

"He won the Champions League, but by that logic, Van Dijk should've won it this year, or last year [Antoine] Griezmann, [Paul] Pogba or [Kylian] Mbappe for doing extraordinary things at the World Cup. Modric made no sense."

Ronaldo, 34, has had a mixed season so far in 2019-20.

For Portugal, he has been sensational, scoring 11 goals in the six UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers they have played since September:

For Juve, though, he has not looked entirely comfortable under new manager Maurizio Sarri, and he has also been struggling for fitness.

Ronaldo's return of six goals in 11 Serie A appearances in 2019-20 would be decent for most forwards, but by his incredible standards, it is relatively underwhelming.