The greatest names in football had the opportunity to rub shoulders with one another at the latest Ballon d’Or gala in Zurich recently.
Abdulaziz Alshehri, a 25-year-old from Saudi Arabia, also received an invite to the event – a prize for winning the FIFA Interactive World Cup last May.
Eager to demonstrate his ability on the game, Alshehri challenged all three Ballon d’Or nominees – Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo – to a match on FIFA.
After his offer was declined by all three, Alshehri turned to Wendell Lira, the man that pipped Messi to this year’s Puskas Award.
Despite his reputations as the best FIFA player on the planet, reports in Brazil claim that Alsherhri was humiliated by Lira who handed out a 6-1 thrashing.
And it turns out that Lira’s FIFA triumph was no fluke.
He has reportedly topped the game’s South American rankings and has won Brazilian state championships. In fact, it’s even being suggested that Lira would have participated in the tournament that Alshehri won in 2015 if his career as a professional footballer hadn’t got in the way.
With FIFA’s next World Championships being held in New York later this year, some are tipping Lira to make an appearance.
