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Lionel Messi emerged victorious at the end of the FIFA Best awards ceremeony in Milan on Monday night, beating Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk to win the FIFA Best Men’s Player of the Year award. The Argentine had enjoyed another record-breaking year with Barcelona, scoring 51 goals and providing 22 assists in 58 games in all competitions. He ended as La Liga’s top assist provider, with 13 assists to his name and was also the top scorer in the Champions League. Messi also won his 10th La Liga title, his sixth European Golden Boot and his sixth Pichichi Trophy, rounding up a stellar season with Barcelona, which helped him win the coveted award.
The FIFA Best Men’s Player of the Year award is decided on a magnanimous voting process. There are four categories of voters and each category contributes equally to the final award. These four categories include national team captains from around the world, national team coaches from around the world, fan voting on FIFA’s official website and the votes from a select panel of journalists. Each person has to rank his top three favorite players accordingly for the award. The top-ranked player gets five points, the second gets three points and the third-placed player gets one point.
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As such, all three finalists themselves were allotted a chance to vote for their favorite contenders, but who voted for whom? Read on to find out.
#3 Cristiano Ronaldo
The Portuguese star's choices certainly raised a few eyebrows. Ronaldo gave his top vote to his current teammate and Dutch defender Matthijs de Ligt. Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong was selected for the second place, while Paris Saint-Germain sensation Kylian Mbappe got Ronaldo’s third and final vote. Surprisingly, the Portuguese had not voted for Messi.
#2 Virgil van Dijk
Van Dijk had previously stated that he considered Messi as the deserved candidate for the award and it showed in his voting too. The Dutchman ranked the Argentine as the first choice in his list, despite the fact the Messi was his direct competitor for the award. His Liverpool team-mates Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane took up the second and third position in his rankings.
#1 Lionel Messi
The Argentine selected Mane as his first choice in the rankings and selected Juventus superstar Ronaldo for the second spot. His Barcelona team-mate De Jong was ranked third in the list. Messi has now won the award for the most number of times (6).
