Luka Modric took home the FIFA Player of the Year award on Monday, but he didn’t get a 1st place vote from former Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.
The votes of major figures have been revealed, and naturally it provides some fascinating insight into who backed who for the award.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly to many, Ronaldo and Lionel Messi didn’t vote for each other, with the latter not even making it into the Portuguese superstar’s top three, as noted by Sky Sports.
Instead, the Juventus ace went for Raphael Varane, Luka Modric and Antoine Griezmann, seemingly giving weight to the fact that Varane was successful for club and country this past year having also won the World Cup in the summer.
In turn, it’s actually a fair assessment from Ronaldo, while Messi went with Modric, Kylian Mbappe and Ronaldo with his votes.
Perhaps refreshingly for some, neither Ronaldo nor Messi came close to winning it, and while there is an obvious argument to back a player like Varane, Griezmann or one of the French stars, Modric has been a fundamental figure for club and country.
From winning another Champions League trophy with Real Madrid to guiding Croatia to their first World Cup final, it has been a memorable year for the 33-year-old, and few will begrudge him from picking up the award.
Modric was a popular pick on the whole along with the likes of Mohamed Salah and Ronaldo, but it’s arguably no real surprise that Ronaldo and Messi didn’t swap first-place votes with each other given their albeit amicable rivalry as the pair will hope to be in the running next year.