THE numbers behind Lionel Messi’s record-extending eighth Ballon d’Or, Erling Haaland’s second place and Victor Osimhen’s historic eighth spot have been released.
Messi won the award on the back of a brilliant Qatar 2022 World Cup campaign, in which he captained his country to the title and was voted the Most Valuable Player.
However, there were those who felt he did not deserve it over Norway striker Haaland, who scored 56 goals across all competitions for club and country as Manchester City won the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League Treble.
According to the voting of select football journalists across the world though, Messi won by a big margin ahead of Haaland, with Kylian Mbappe third and Napoli striker Osimhen eighth, the highest ever by a Nigerian.
In the final result released overnight, Messi beat Haaland by a healthy 105 points — 462 to 357.
Mbappe, who was top scorer at the World Cup with one more goal than Messi and won the French league title along with the Argentinian, received 257 points.
Manchester City and Belgium midfielder Kevin De Bruyne got 100 points to finish fourth, with his club mate, Spain midfielder Rodri, completing the top five with 57 points.
Vinicius Jr of Brazil and Real Madrid (49 points), Julian Alvarez of Argentina and Manchester City (28), Osimhen (24), Bernardo Silva of Portugal and Manchester City (20) and former winner Luka Modric (19) make up the top 10.
Of the 100 journalists that voted, 65 placed Messi in first place, more than triple Haaland’s 21. Mbappe had five first-place votes and Bernardo Silva had one, from his native Portugal.
Some of the countries that voted Messi as No.1 included Nigeria (represented by veteran sports writer Samm Audu who voted Osimhen fourth), England, Argentina, South Africa, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, Italy, USA, India, Mexico, Morocco, Israel and Palestine.
Haaland got first-place votes from Norway, Japan, Greece, Guinea, Ghana, Senegal and Slovakia among others.
How Ballon d’Or voting works
One hundred football journalists were appointed to a jury and presented with a shortlist of 30 players drawn up by France Football magazine, the award’s organisers.
The journalists are picked from the top 100 counties in the FIFA rankings, with one journalist from each of the nations getting a vote.
Each journalist ranks their top five players with the first choice getting six points, second four, third three, fourth two and fifth one.
The player that gets the most points wins the award.
