Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi fail to vote for each other

Perhaps more interesting than the actual Ballon d’Or award itself is the release of the full list of who voted for who, which more often than not makes for some interesting reading – and usually a few laughable decision. Somewhat unsurprisingly, neither winner Cristiano Ronaldo nor his arch-rival Lionel Messi voted for each other, in an attempt to give themselves the best chance of winning the sought-after award.

Argentina captain Messi decided that the best approach was to keep things sweet at his club, Barcelona. All three of his nominations were teammates of his at the Spanish league champions, with Messi opting to vote Andres Iniesta as his winner, followed by Xavi and summer signing Neymar. Ronaldo on the other hand included just one of his club colleagues, although he also nominated a former Real Madrid player in Arsenal’s Mesut Özil as his third choice. However, Ronaldo’s first choice was AS Monaco striker Radamel Falcao, who scored 29 goals in 2013 in all competitions for Atletico Madrid, Monaco and his country Colombia.

Ronaldo alsochose £86m record signing Gareth Bale in second, with the Welshman receiving 25 individual votes in total from the 541 total across the international captains, coaches and media representatives. Away from the obvious choices, Manchester City and Belgium captain Vincent Kompany took a rather bemusing approach in voting for Franck Ribéry, Yaya Touré and Eden Hazard.

The Independent