Speaking in an event at the Web Summit, a tech even in Lisbon, Mendes said that he had no doubt but that Ronaldo would be announced this year’s winner at the ceremony in December, precisely 10 years after he won his first Ballon d’Or.

The award is presented annually by the French magazine ‘France Football’.

"I hope Cristiano wins the Ballon d’Or and that next year he may win it again,” said Mendes, describing the Portugal captain as “a phenomenal player”.

Mendes was on Tuesday awarded Web Summit’s new ‘Innovation in Sport’ prize for his career as an agent, which has helped transform Portuguese football. In the interview, he picked out 2003 and 2004 as the key years in this respect.

"When I took Ronaldo to England in 2003, it was something special,” he said, referring to the player’s move to Manchester from Lisbon, where he had been playing for Sporting. “Portuguese players had no place in that market. With his arrival, and even more when he became Manchester United’s best player after a year, everything changed.

“At that moment he opened the door to other young talents,” he went on, adding that “Mourinho did the same, when he moved to Chelsea [as manager] in 2004, and got the club winning again.”

These two moments, Mendes said, “were key for our country”.

In conclusion, the agent chose Portugal's victory in the Euro 2016 finals in France as his most special moment in football, and added that he would like to see the national team win another international tournament.

"We have players with the quality to win the next Euro and, who knows, the World Cup," he said.