Portugal snub Ronaldo, Sterling second - the strangest votes in the 2021 Ballon d’Or
Robin Bairner
- Updated: 4 Dec 2021 15:54 GMT
- 4 min read
Lionel Messi picked up a seventh Ballon d’Or on Monday, with the Paris Saint-Germain attacker beating Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski into second place.
It was not a result that was without controversy. There was a strong lobby for the prolific Pole to pick up the prize for the first time – not least because many felt he deserved it last year, when the award was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Messi, though, ultimately prevailed, his exploits at the Copa America with Argentina apparently having a decisive say in the voting.
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The award, which is run by France Football, was voted on by one journalist from every country around the world.
Given a shortlist of 30 players, these media representatives then had to pick their top five, with their selections given points weighted in favour of the players they rated most highly.
Messi ultimately picked up 613 points, 33 ahead of Lewandowski and 213 clear of Chelsea and Italy midfielder Jorginho, who finished third.
On Saturday, the opinion of each polled journalist was published in France Football, inevitably including several curious selections.
The strangest Ballon d’Or 2021 votes
One of the most eye-catching ballots came from Argentina, where Quique Wolff of ESPN was one of the few journalists who did not see fit to give Lewandowski a single point. His top vote? Messi, of course.
He also placed Atletico Madrid’s Luis Suarez in third – higher than anyone else.
Another example of leftfield voting comes from El Salvador, where Bruno Porzio placed Manchester City's Raheem Sterling in second. Sterling picked up only 10 points overall, 40% of them coming from here.
Cristiano Ronaldo was, inevitably, a major talking point. Portugal’s journalist, Joaquin Rita, did not select him at all. In a competition where voting is heavily biased on geographical grounds, this was a major surprise.
Evidence of this is provided by Brazil’s Cleber Machado of TV Globo who was apparently unimpressed by Messi’s claim. Given that the PSG star’s contribution stopped the Selecao from winning the Copa America, this is perhaps no surprise. He equally overlooked Lewandowski, with Kevin De Bruyne getting his nod.
Similarly, Passang Norbu of Bhutan gave an interesting vote. Neither Messi nor Lewandowski was present in their top five, with Mohamed Salah leading the way ahead of N’Golo Kante, Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and Karim Benzema.
He was not the only voter to overlook all of the ultimate top three. Cameroon’s Gustave Samnick also snubbed Messi, Lewandowski and Jorginho. He voted for Kylian Mbappe – who incidentally has Cameroonian heritage – as the world’s leading player.
The trio are clearly not rated in Mozambique either. Raimundo Zandamela gave Cristiano Ronaldo his nod as being the best player in the world during 2021 – one of just a handful of journalists to do so.
Indeed, the other nations to rate Ronaldo as the greatest player of 2021 were: the Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Kirghizstan, Macao, the Netherlands and Turkey.
