Chelsea's Jorginho digs at Rio Ferdinand after winning UEFA Player of the Year award

Chelsea star Jorginho took it to his Instagram stories after winning the UEFA Player of the Year award and took a dig at former Manchester United player Rio Ferdinand for criticizing him, back in the 2018-19 season. The video posted by Jorginho had the picture of him sitting on the bench during the 2019-20 season, Ferdinand’s video criticizing him, and then Jorginho picking the UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award before the match against Zenit on Wednesday. Jorginho has won the UEFA Champions League 2020-21 for Chelsea and the UEFA Euro 2020 for Italy this year.

Rio Ferdinand’s video with the BT Sport in which he can be seen criticising Jorginho was a clip taken from two years ago when Ferdinand said, “Jorginho is someone who sets the tempo of a game. But how many assists has he got this season? Around 2,000 passes, no assists. He’s not a great defender. Once he plays against a big team he gets overrun in midfield. He can’t run. He doesn’t give you anything defensively, and he doesn’t give you anything at the other end of the pitch.” 

It's a great feeling, I am really happy: Jorginho

The 29-year-old Jorginho, however, has performed extremely well for both his country and club in the past year. He has lifted the Champions League title in May with Chelsea and also won the Euro 2020 title with his national side Italy. His exceptional display of skills, when added with the above endeavours, has proved his critics wrong as he received the UEFA Men's Player of the Year award, ahead of other contenders like Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne and teammate N’Golo Kante. 

After receiving the UEFA Player of the Year award, before the kick-off of their UEFA Champions League 2021 season opener against Zenit, Jorginho expressed his feelings following the honour. As mentioned on the official website of Chelsea, Jorginho said that the award means a lot to him as it happened because of everyone and not just him. He expressed gratitude towards everyone who have helped him along and also who didn’t believe in him, as this motivated him to work harder. He concluded by admitting that he is happy with the great feeling and thanked everyone for their support.

(Image: AP/Twitter/Premier League)