Ballon d’Or award won by Luka Modric had ‘fake journalist’ vote against him as old quotes from photographer shed light on controversy

The 2018 Ballon d’Or voting process was marred by a huge scandal as a fake journalist was allegedly allowed to cast his votes. It was discovered a few days after the Ballon d’Or was awarded, that a journalist who didn’t exist was allowed to partake in the voting process.

The Ballon d’Or, an award organized by France Football, is an individual accolade given to the best player in the world every year. It has been presented since 1956, with Inter Miami talisman Lionel Messi winning the award most times (eight). The latest edition will be presented in Paris on Monday, October 28.

The winner of the award is voted for by a panel of journalists from each of the top 100 countries in the FIFA men’s world rankings. Ten players are selected based on their merit.

In the selection process for the Best Footballer of the Year 2018, the esteemed editorial team of France Football, along with 176 international journalists, participated in the voting. Among the journalists was a journalist from Comoros, a nation in East Africa, whose name was Abdou Bonia. Bonia was supposed to represent albaladcomores.com.

However, it was discovered that the site has been inactive for six years. There is no record of an individual named Abdou Bonia who has ever worked for the publication. Toimimou Abdo, who worked as a photographer for the publication when it still existed, told alwatan.net (via Sport Bible):

"I am surprised to see that Albakad Comores exists. As far as I know, the newspaper has been closed for six years."

The pseudo-journalist voted Kylian Mbappe, who was at Paris Saint-Germain at the time, as his No. 1 pick. He voted Luka Modric, who was the eventual winner, as second. Cristiano Ronaldo, Eden Hazard, and Mohamed Salah came in third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, in his pick.

Unfortunately for him, his votes had minimal effect, as Modric secured victory, thereby becoming the first player other than Messi and Ronaldo to win the award since 2008.

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What Luka Modric said after he won the Ballon d’Or in 2018

Luka Modric won the Ballon d’Or in 2018 ending the 10-year dominance of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Croatian finished first, Cristiano Ronaldo finished second, and Antoine Griezmann third. Lionel Messi finished outside the top three for the first time since 2007.

After being crowned the best player, Modric dedicated his award to other players who missed out on the 10 years of hegemony by Messi and Ronaldo. He told BBC:

"Maybe in the past there are some players who could have won the Ballon d'Or like Xavi, Andres Iniesta or [Wesley] Sneijder but people finally now are looking at someone else. This award is for all the players who probably deserved to win it and didn't.

"It was a really special year for me. It is difficult to express my emotion and how I feel in words. It is something unique for me. It was very special."

Modric won the award after helping Real Madrid win the UEFA Champions League and also drove Croatia to their first FIFA World Cup final.