By Wycliff G; Last night in Paris, France Argentine and FC Barcelona Magical forward Lionel Messi claimed his sixth Ballon d’Or award beating Liverpool FC’s defender Virgil van Dijk and Juventus’s Christiano Ronaldo.
The Catalonian wizard Messi poked a gong ahead of longtime nemesis Cristiano Ronaldo – as he completed a stunning 2019 with the famous trophy, to go alongside the ones he collected in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015.
Messi picked-up 686 voting points compared to Virgil van Dijk’s 679 and Christiano Ronaldo 476pts.
Van Dijk picked up the most votes from the European and Asian continents, with Messi topping the charts in each of the other four confederation areas.
Reds winger Sadio Mane was Africa’s second favorite player, with Merseyside teammate Alisson breaching the top five in North America.
Ronaldo came third in the vote – which is awarded by France Football and sees a top journalist in each country voting for their top five players of the calendar year.
England’s voter, the Times’ Henry Winter, picked van Dijk has his No.1, with Messi, Ronaldo, Raheem Sterling, and Alisson his other selections.
Three players on the 30-man shortlist, Donny van de Beek, Joao Felix, and Marquinhos, all failed to garner a single vote.
Here is the Ballon d’Or voting in full per country, points each player scored:
POINTS IN FULL
- 1. Lionel Messi – 686pts
- 2. Virgil van Dijk – 679pts
- 3. Cristiano Ronaldo – 476pts
- 4. Sadio Mane – 347pts
- 5. Mohamed Salah 178pts
- 6. Kylian Mbappe 89pts
- 7. Alisson – 67pts
- 8. Robert Lewandowski – 44pts
- 9. Bernardo Silva – 41pts
- 10. Riyad Mahrez – 33pts
- 11. Frenkie de Jong – 31pts
- 12. Raheem Sterling – 30pts
- 13. Eden Hazard – 25pts
- 14. Kevin de Bruyne – 14pts
- 15. Matthijs de Ligt – 13pts
- 16. Sergio Aguero -12pts
- 17. Roberto Firmino – 11pts
- 18. Antoine Griezmann – 9pts
- 19. Trent Alexander-Arnold – 8pts
- 20= Dusan Tadic – 5pts
- 20= Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 5pts
- 22. Son Heung-min – 4pts
- 23. Hugo Lloris – 3pts
- 24= Kalidou Koulibaly – 2pts
- 24= Marc-Andre ter Stegen – 2pts
- 26= Karim Benzema – 1pt
- 26= Gini Wijnaldum – 1pt
- 28= Donny van de Beek – 0pts
- 28= Joao Felix – 0pts
- 28= Marquinhos – 0pts
We will kee you posted
