The Ballon d’Or awards ceremony is done and dusted, with Lionel Messi winning the big prize on Monday for a record-breaking sixth time. With more and more info popping up, we now have a better picture of how the Argentine beat Virgil Van Dijk to the prize.
The winner is decided by votes from journalists across the globe which is later converted into points. Leo picked up 686 points, narrowly edging out Liverpool’s star defender who racked up 679 points.
A breakdown of the votes shows obvious but expected regional bias, with Messi emerging on top in the votes from South America while Van Dijk was the most chosen player by journalists from Europe. However, from the remaining confederation areas, the Dutchman emerged on top in only one – Asia – with the Argentine sweeping the rest.
Even in Africa, Messi was the highest-voted player, with Sadio Mane coming in at second. The Senegalese forward, alongside Leo, Virgil, and Cristiano were all the first pick by the journalists from their respective countries. Check out who the journalists voted for in the pictures below.
