FIFA have revealed who Lionel Messi, Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo voted for to win the Best Men’s Player award for 2019.
The awards ceremony was held in Milan on Monday night, with the Barcelona and Argentina superstar taking home the big prize for a sixth time.
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It comes after a glittering year for the Catalan giants in which he scored 51 goals and provided 22 assists in just 50 games, while winning yet another La Liga title and Copa del Rey.
In turn, there is undoubtedly a strong case to be made in favour of Messi winning the award, although naturally there will be those who were backing either Van Dijk and Ronaldo to win it as they finished second and third respectively.
?? Full breakdown of voting results here: https://t.co/k4PksekZaJ#TheBest | #FIFAFootballAwards pic.twitter.com/cymNNO4lft
— #TheBest ? (@FIFAcom) September 23, 2019
As per the FIFA website, they have also now confirmed who voted for who, with some interesting results particularly given Ronaldo snubbed Messi altogether in his top three picks.
The Juventus forward went with teammate Matthijs de Ligt with his first vote, while Frenkie de Jong and Kylian Mbappe also got the nod from him.
As for Van Dijk, he went with Messi and Liverpool teammates Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, while Messi surprisingly voted for Mane first with Ronaldo and De Jong to follow.
It’s a fascinating decision from FIFA to publish these results, with the captains of the national teams getting a vote and playing a big part in who wins the awards on offer.
The players in question will undoubtedly be aware that their picks will be published after the ceremony, and so Ronaldo perhaps will receive the most attention after snubbing Messi from his top three votes.
Lionel Messi
1: Sadio Mane 2: Cristiano Ronaldo 3: Frenkie de Jong
Virgil van Dijk
1: Lionel Messi 2: Mohamed Salah 3: Sadio Mane
Cristiano Ronaldo
1: Matthijs de Ligt 2: Frenkie de Jong 3: Kylian Mbappe
