Bayern Munich superstar Robert Lewandowski has vowed he will not "stand still" as he looks to pull clear of his rivals at the pinnacle of European football.
His fresh pledge comes a matter of weeks after he intensified his rivalry with Lionel Messi by appearing to discredit the Ballon d'Or.
Lewandowski, 33, finished second in the 2021 voting and had to settle for the Striker of the Year award as Messi won football's most prestigious individual honour for a seventh time.
Many fans felt the prolific Polish striker was bitterly unlucky not to win his maiden Ballon d'Or and there was a sense it was doubly unjust because the 2020 edition was cancelled.
In his magnanimous acceptance speech, Paris Saint-Germain's Messi, 34, called for organisers France Football to present Lewandowski with the accolade for the previous year retrospectively.
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Ballon d'Or chiefs responded by saying they would consider this course of action, but, remarkably, Lewandowski delivered a disparaging verdict on the award in early February.
Speaking after he was crowned 2021 FIFA Best Men's Player, the Bundesliga's leading goalscorer seemed to aim a thinly-veiled dig at Messi's achievement.
"I have been thinking lately and I have come to the conclusion that the FIFA award is more important," Lewandowski told a Polish magazine, per Marca.
"Only journalists vote for the Ballon d'Or, there is no clear verification. Instead, professional football and the press vote for the FIFA award.
"The captains and coaches of each national team can evaluate our performances in a more realistic and objective way, because they know how much each match, each record, each injury means.
"Perhaps in the prestigious ranking, the Ballon d'Or is better positioned, but the recognition I received by winning The Best makes me proud because I know how hard I worked for many years."
Having questioned the voting process underpinning the award Messi has won more times than any other player, Lewandowski has fired a warning to Europe's other elite players by declaring he will continue to improve.
Rather ironically, he was asked by France Football which strikers impress him the most and responded: "Personally, I only look at myself and rarely at others.
"I want to constantly improve myself, every day. If I'm unhappy with one or two things from a match, I watch them again on video and I work on them immediately in the next training session so as not to reproduce the same errors again.
"I always want to evolve. Standing still is my enemy. This is also the reason why I work a lot on my positioning in relation to my teammates."
