MADRID — Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has renewed his long-running criticism of how the Ballon d'Or is awarded, arguing football's most prestigious individual honor should go to players whose legacies endure for decades rather than to those who happen to win the Champions League or a World Cup in a given season.

Mourinho made the comments during a press conference Saturday ahead of Real Madrid's La Liga match against newly promoted Malaga at the Santiago Bernabeu, with this year's Ballon d'Or ceremony approaching next month. "It's a very beautiful thing individually and it goes into the individual history of a player," Mourinho said, according to comments reported by Forbes. "It's normal that the 12 players of a very high level, of which we have three or four, have the ambition to win it."

The Portuguese coach then laid out his central argument for what should determine the winner. "For me, the Ballon d'Or has to go to one of those players who, when they retire, we miss them for eternity," Mourinho said, according to Fabrizio Romano and multiple outlets covering the press conference. "Maradona, Cristiano, Messi, R9, Zidane... You can't give the........

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