5 weirdest votes from the 2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or results list

Messi won the 2015 Ballon d'Or, the fifth time he has won itAs Lionel Messi lifted the Ballon d'Or for the fifth time last night, FIFA published the results of the Ballon d'Or voting. As Messi won with 41.33% of the votes, Cristiano Ronaldo came in second with 27.76% of the votes while Neymar finished a distant third with 7.86% of the votes.Together, the trio accounted for a little over three-quarter of all the votes placed, leaving plenty of room for weird and wonderful voting patterns from the multitude of countries involved.With Roy Hodgson infamously voting for Javier Mascherano last year, perhaps there was a repeat performance from those involved this season as well.Here are 5 of the weirdest votes in this year's Ballon d'Or :

#1 Pakistan coach Mohammad Al Shamlan needs to get a TV

Pakistan coach Mohammad Al-Shamlan may have not watched much football last year

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Coach	Pakistan	Basheer Al Shamlan Mohammad Shamlan Mubarak	Arjen Robben	Karim Benzema	Cristiano Ronaldo

The Pakistan manager’s pick for the 2015 Ballon d’Or was Dutch superstar Arjen Robben. The same Arjen Robben who missed a total of 176 days and 29 games for Bayern Munich in 2015 through injury. Perhaps Al-Shamlan is a fan of left wingers who cut inside, shoot and refuse to pass, because there isn’t much of an explanation for his #1 pick being Arjen Robben.

There’s also much to question regarding his decision to place Karim Benzema above Cristiano Ronaldo, but clearly, Al-Shamlan is a fan of a unique line of thinking. Or maybe, just maybe, he was confused and filled out his choices in reverse order. Steve Harvey, of Miss Universe fame, would like to have a word.

Al-Shamlan’s picks for the FIFA Mens World Coach of the Year were far more normal, though :

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Coach	Pakistan	Basheer Al Shamlan Mohammad Shamlan Mubarak	Jose Mourinho	Luis Enrique	Arsene Wenger

#2 Birds of a feather stick together

Gareth Bale and Eden Hazard profited from their national representative’s choices

It’s human nature to be biased towards one’s own country, but a few captians and coaches have a rather effusive sense of national pride. Belgium captain Vincent Kompany and manager Marc Wilmots have a rather Belgian-looking list of picks, however with Eden Hazard yet to score for Chelsea since May, they might have to take a strong look at themselves, especially given Kevin de Bruyne’s form last year.

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Captain	Belgium	Vincent Kompany	Eden Hazard	Kevin de Bruyne	Lionel Messi
Coach	Belgium	Marc Wilmots	Manuel Neuer	Keven de Bruyne	Eden Hazard

Similarly, Wales captain Ashley Williams and manager Chris Coleman went with countryman Gareth Bale in top spot, while resorting to completely different picks for the other two.

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Captain	Wales	Ashley Williams	Gareth Bale	Lionel Messi	Robert Lewandowski
Coach	Wales	Chris Coleman	Gareth Bale	Cristiano Ronaldo	Eden Hazard

Argentina coach Gerard Martino is extremely proud of his players, with all three picks of his being from his own national side. Bastian Schweinsteiger has a rather German look to his voting list as well, as he plumped for Manuel Neuer as is #1 pick.

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Coach	Argentina	Gerardo Martino	Lionel Messi	Sergio Aguero	Javier Mascherano
Captain	Germany	Bastian Schweinsteiger	Manuel Neuer	Thomas Muller	Neymar

Conversely, Robert Lewandowski eschewed his countrymen for his club teammates, picking Bayern Munich players in all three spots, with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in first place. Poland might need to forge more superstars.

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Captain	Poland	Robert Lewandowski	Manuel Neuer	Arturo Vidal	Thomas Muller

#3 Indian manager Stephen Constantine is a singular thinker

Stephen Constantine appreciates hard working forwards

With Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar enjoying stellar seasons, one would expect that they would make it to everyone’s top three. However, there are those, such as Indian national team manager Stephen Constantine, who enjoy going against the grain.

While not as outlandish as his Pakistani counterpart’s picks, Constantine revealed his preference for dimunitive, hard working forwards as he was one of the only two to pick Alexis Sanchez as their #1 pick. With Sergio Aguero also part of his pick, Sunil Chhetri has a blueprint of what his manager expects of him. Chhetri, for his part, knows how the wind blows, as his order of picks was the same order as how the Ballon d’Or voting ended.

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Coach	India	Stephen Constantine	Alexis Sanchez	Manuel Neuer	Sergio Aguero
Captain	India	Sunil Chhetri	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo	Neymar Jr

Giving Constantine company were the captains of New Caledonia and Vanuatu, who had none of the top three Ballon d’Or picks in their lists.

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Captain	New Caledonia	Jean Brice Wadriako	Andres Iniesta	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Karim Benzema
Captain	Vatnuatu	Fenedy Masauvakalo	Paul Pogba	Thomas Muller	Alexis Sanchez

#4 Africa loves Yaya Toure

Yaya Toure won the CAF African Footballer of the Year in 2014

Yaya Toure was pipped to the CAF African Footballer of the Year award by Gabonese striker Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, and vocally expressed his disappointment with the African voters at missing out on the award.

Ironically enough, Yaya Toure was 12th in the voting for the Ballon d’Or shortlist with most of his votes coming from Africa. Out of the 18 votes that were placed for him, 15 came from African countries, with both the captains and coaches of Botswana, Congo DR and Senegal voting for him in unison. Three voters, including one from Asia, placed him in first :

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Captain	Cameroon	Stephen MBia	Yaya Toure	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Manuel Neuer
Coach	Malaysia	Ong Kim Swee	Yaya Toure	Cristiano Ronaldo	Lionel Messi
Coach	Senegal	Aliou Cisse	Yaya Toure	Cristiano Ronaldo	Lionel Messi

However, Toure might be a bit miffed with national teammate Gervinho, as he decided against voting for the Manchester City midfielder. With Ivory Coast’s national fixtures coming up, the Roma forward might want to steer clear of the powerful Toure in the dressing room.

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Captain	Cote d’Ivoire	Yao Kouassi Gervais	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo	Eden Hazard

#5 Guatemala is Javier Mascherano\'s next holiday destination

Javier Mascherano puts his body on the line for club and country

Javier Mascherano, famously, was England manager Roy Hodgson’s #1 choice for the Ballon d’Or last year. Hodgson’s love for the Argentine midfielder was conspicously absent this year, as the England manager opted for Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Eden Hazard as his top three choices.

So where would the love for Javier Mascherano come from this year? The Argentine midfielder made it to the list 11 times, finishing 14th in the voting overall, but special attention for him came from the captain and coach of Guatemala, as the Central Americans picked the Argentine as their #1 pick.

Those who picked Mascherano as their #1 pick are an ecologically diverse group as the captains of Norway and African nation Mauritania also plumped for the Argentinian.

Designation	Country	Name	#1	#2	#3
Coach	Guatemala	Ivan Fanco Sopegno	Javier Mascherano	Cristiano Ronaldo	James Rodriguez
Captain	Guatemala	Humberto Carlos Ruiz	Javier Mascherano	Cristiano Ronaldo	James Rodriguez
Captain	Mauritania	Oumar N’Diaye	Javier Mascherano	Cristiano Ronaldo	Neymar
Captain	Norway	Per Ciljan Skjelbred	Javier Mascherano	Cristiano Ronaldo	Gareth Bale

#6 Non Voters : Italy

Gianluigi Buffon was not in the FIFA Ballon d’Or Top 59 shortlist

The Italian FA were conspicuously absent from the Ballon d’Or voting results list. According to reports from Sky Italia, the Italians pointedly boycotted the voting, as Antonia Conte and Gianluigi Buffon did not place their votes in their respective roles as manager and captain of the Italian national football team. The Italians viewed Buffon’s exclusion from the 59-man Ballon d’Or shortlist as an insult and abstained as a result.

Curiously, Buffon is among 3 goalkeeping captains who did not vote, as Claudio Bravo and Iker Casillas did not vote as well, as thier respective FA’s were unable to get the required documents to the duo in time.

With Lev Yashin the only ever winner of the Ballon d’Or in 1963, perhaps it is time that goalkeepers were given their due.