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Ballon d'Or voting: Who picked Lionel Messi, who picked Cristiano Ronaldo and who picked De Bruyne first?

Messi won, but who selected him?

Tom Sheen
Tuesday 12 January 2016 11:34 GMT
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(AFP/Getty Images)

We all know by now that Lionel Messi doesn't vote for Cristiano Ronaldo and the Real Madrid star doesn't vote for his Barcelona rival in the Ballon d'Or

In each of the last six years neither has voted for the other, with Ronaldo seemingly starting the feud by voting for Xavi, Iker Casillas and Wesley Sneijder in 2010 - a year when no Argentina vote was registered.

It's pretty petty if you think too much about it, there's really no doubt that the two are the world's best.

Messi won the golden ball for the fifth time, picking up 41.3 per cent of the votes.

But where did he get them from? Fifa has released the full voting breakdown that shows how the captains, coaches and media made their selections.

As ever, there are some interesting choices, although Roy Hodgson decided against an outlandish pick this year, like the third place he gave to Javier Mascherano last year.

He's not alone in his admiration for the Barcelona and Argentina stopper it would apear, with Mascherano picking up two No 1 votes - from Guatemala captain Humberto Ruiz Carlos and Mauritania skipper Oumar N'Diaye. We're not sure what Lionel Messi did to offend those two but he appeared in neither of their top three.

Elsewhere, voting appears to have been done along club and international lines, with the odd spiteful one thrown in.

Messi voted for Luis Suarez, Neymar and Andres Iniesta. Ronaldo picked Karim Benzema, James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale (more evidence to their frosty relationship?). Rodroguez picked Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale. Neymar picked Messi, Suarez and Ivan Rakitic. So far, so obvious.

Manchester City and Belgium captain Vincent Kompany picked Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Messi, while Wales skipper Ashley Williams gave his top vote to Bale.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic again picked Lionel Messi No 1 - he has done in all six years that voting has been revealed.

Wayne Rooney appears to have put a little bit of thought into it, leaving aside his loyalty to Ronaldo to pick the Real Madrid man in third place, behind Lionel Messi and the under-appreciated Thomas Muller.

Apart from Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar there are not many others who gain non-tactical No 1 votes - there seems to be a reason behind them all.

Robert Lewandowski, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Andres Iniesta picked up a couple of top picks, as did Manuel Neuer but Paul Pogba (picked by Vanuatu captain Fenedy Masauvakalo) and Alexis Sanchez (American Samoa, India coaches) were certainly among the more eye-raising choices.

Yaya Toure garnered quite a few No 1 votes from African nations after leading the Ivory Coast to the Africa Cup of Nations at the start of the year.

Both Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger and coach Joachim Low picked only German players, the same as Messi and his national coach Tata Martino picking only Argentina players.

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