REVEALED: Ballon d’Or voting numbers show Van Dijk came AGONIZINGLY close to pipping Messi to top prize
by RT
REVEALED: Ballon d’Or voting numbers show Van Dijk came AGONIZINGLY close to pipping Messi to top prize
The full Ballon d’Or voting numbers have been revealed just how close second-placed Virgil van Dijk came to beating winner Lionel Messi to the most coveted individual prize in football.
Messi walked away with a record sixth Ballon d’Or prize in Paris on Monday night, putting him one ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.
But the voting figures from the nearly 200 journalists polled by France Football for the award revealed that Dutch defender Van Dijk had come within a whisker of depriving Messi of the accolade.
Messi claimed 686 points, while Van Dijk ended with 679. Ronaldo – who snubbed the Paris ceremony – was significantly further back, rounding out the top three on 476 points.
The wafter-thin margin of victory was the closest of any of Messi’s six Ballon d’OR titles.
Journalists from around the world were asked for their top five picks from a shortlist of 30 candidates, allocating 6 points to the player in first, 4 points for the second, 3 for the third, 2 for the fourth and 1 point for the player they deemed the fifth-best in the world.
The criteria outlined by France Football magazine were: “1. Individual and team performances in the 2019 calendar year; 2. Talent and sportsmanship of the player; 3. The player’s overall career.”
Ultimately, Champions League winner Van Dijk failed to edge out Messi, who scored 51 goals in 50 games for Barcelona last season and who has managed 11 in 14 games so far this term.
The rest of the top 10 included Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker, as well as PSG ace Kylian Mbappe, Manchester City playmaker Bernardo Silva, and Bayern Munich’s prolific Pole, Robert Lewandowski.
