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The magazine France Football has unveiled in detail the votes of the Ballon d'Or 2019. They reveal that Lionel Messi gets his sixth historic victory than a very short head in front of Virgil van Dijk. Sadio Mané was not acclaimed on the African continent, which preferred Leo Messi. Explanations.
The suspense ended on Monday, December 2, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Catched up in 2017 by Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi is once again the only record holder in the number of victories at the Ballon d'Or. The Argentinian has been named best of the world for the 6th time of his career (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019 therefore). The FC Barcelona player was elected ahead of Dutchman Virgil van Dijk and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo.
The magazine France Football, creator of the Ballon d'Or and organizer of the vote and the ceremony, delivered the details of the votes. As a reminder, the Ballon d'Or is awarded based on the votes of 180 journalists from around the world (one per country). Each voter must rank five players: the first receives 6 points, the second receives 4 points, the third receives 3 points, the fourth receives 2 points and the fifth receives 1 point.
For this 2019 edition, 176 voters have cast their vote. Here's what to remember.
Van Dijk only 7 points from Messi
It had been a long time since the margin between the winner and his dolphin had been so short. Lionel Messi was crowned Ballon d'Or with 686 points, against 679 points for Virgil van Dijk. Only 7 points difference, it is exceptionally little in a poll counting as many voters. The defender Liverpool does not succeed Marco van Basten, last Dutch winner (1992), but he gets the highest ranking since Dennis Bergkamp, also 2nd in 1993.
There have been some very short victories in the years 1960-1970 for example, but the juries were then much smaller. And difficult to make even tighter than the 1996 Golden Ball: the German Matthias Sammer had imposed a hair in front of the Brazilian Ronaldo in 1996 with 144 points against ... 143!
Messi's victory was played out very little. Van Dijk was ranked first among 69 votes, compared to 61 times for the striker. But the number of points accumulated, the difference was in favor of Blaugrana. France Football indicates that while Virgil van Dijk came first in Europe and Asia, Lionel Messi was chosen in South America, North America and the Caribbean, Oceania and Africa.
Africa preferred Messi to Mané
Fourth place won by Sadio Mané disappointed many Senegalese fans and some football observers, who saw the lack of consideration of African footballers. As a reminder, except for the credence of the Liberian George Weah in 1995, no African has managed to get on the podium. Before Mané, only the Ivorian Didier Drogba managed to climb to 4th place in 2007.
" You can not talk about racism, but only favoritism. Being an African footballer is of course a handicap, as key decision-makers and influential media are not from the continent. But Messi deserves it. Sadio has made an exceptional year, but Messi, he is stratospheric, "tempered El-Hadji Diouf, the star of the Teranga Lions of 2002, to AFP.
However, the Ballon d'Or 2019 poll shows that even in Africa, Sadio Mané has not been raised to the top. Of the 49 voters on the continent, three did not give a single point to the Liverpool player (Kenya, Mozambique and Tunisia). Lionel Messi was only shunned by two countries (Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire).
By scrutinizing the votes, it appears that Messi has dominated Mané in many ways in Africa. The Argentine scored 187 points in total, against 170 for Senegal and 154 for Dutchman Van Dijk. 18 countries have awarded Messi the 1st place (synonymous with 6 points), against 14 for Van Dijk and 12 for Mané.
On arrival, Sadio Mané took half of his points in Africa: 170 points out of 347 (48.99%). This remains less than Lionel Messi. And in the rest of the world, the Senegalese striker has been systematically outdistanced by the trio Messi-Van Dijk-Ronaldo.
Salah five times in the lead, Koulibaly ranked, the atypical vote of Sri Lanka
The rest of the Ballon d'Or standings have some surprises. Respecting almost the logic of the final quinté head, Mohamed Salah has arrived at the top of the votes with five jurors: that of Egypt, his country, but also that of Bermuda, Kazakhstan, Madagascar and Yemen.
Côte d'Ivoire and Guatemala were somewhat surprised when they voted first for Alisson Becker, the Brazilian goalkeeper from Liverpool. Knowing that in Brazil, the goalkeeper received no point, the Brazilian jury even give a point to the Dutch Frenkie de Jong.
Robert Lewandowski also came in first in two countries where he is rife: Germany - he puts the goals as pearls with Bayern Munich, after having already registered many Borussia Dortmund - and his native Poland.
Frenchman Kylian Mbappé also received two six-point votes: Kyrgyzstan and Slovenia.
Among the 30 finalists, three players received no points: the Dutchman Donny van de Beek, the Portuguese Joao Felix and the Brazilian Marquinhos. The Dutchman Georginio Wijnaldum and the Frenchman Karim Benzema escape the zero point by scoring one point each: Liverpool midfielder got it from the Dutch island of Aruba and the Real Madrid striker saw it to be awarded by Argentina.
Kalidou Koulibaly became the fourth Senegalese footballer to be ranked among the finalists of the Ballon d'Or, after Papa Bouba Diop and El Hadji Diouf in 2002 and Sadio Mané since 2017. The defender of Naples was ranked 24th, tied with German Marc-André ter Stegen, getting 2 points. These points were awarded to him by the vote of ... Senegal.
But the most surprising vote comes from Sri Lanka. The voting reporter simply voted for none of the Top 7 players. His first vote, which was worth 6 points, went to ... the English Trent Alexander-Arnold! The latter received a total of 8 points (6 from Sri Lanka, 1 from Cameroon and 1 from Singapore). Sri Lanka then voted for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Antoine Griezmann, Robert Lewandowski and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
THE COMPLETE CLASSIFICATION OF THE 2019 MEN'S GOLDEN BALL
1st: Lionel Messi (Argentina / FC Barcelona) - 686 points
2nd: Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands / Liverpool) - 679 points
3rd: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal / Juventus) - 476 points
4th: Sadio Mané (Senegal / Liverpool) - 347 points
5th: Mohamed Salah (Egypt / Liverpool) - 178 points
6th: Kylian Mbappé (France / PSG) - 89 points
7th: Alisson Becker (Brazil / Liverpool) - 67 points
8th: Robert Lewandowski (Poland / Bayern Munich) - 44 points
9th: Bernardo Silva (Portugal / Manchester City) - 41 points
10th: Riyad Mahrez (Algeria / Manchester City) - 33 points
11th: Frenkie de Jong (Netherlands / Ajax Amsterdam & FC Barcelona) - 31 points
12th: Raheem Sterling (England / Manchester City) - 30 points
13th: Eden Hazard (Belgium / Chelsea & Real Madrid) - 25 points
14th: Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium / Manchester City) - 14 points
15th: Matthijs de Ligt (Netherlands / Ajax Amsterdam & Juventus) - 13 points
16th: Sergio Agüero (Argentina / Manchester City) - 12 points
17th: Roberto Firmino (Brazil / Liverpool) - 11 points
18th: Antoine Griezmann (France / Atlético de Madrid & FC Barcelona) - 9 points
19th: Trent Alexander-Arnold (England / Liverpool) - 8 points
20th: Dusan Tadic (Serbia / Ajax), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon / Arsenal) - 5 points
22nd: Heung-min Son (South Korea / Tottenham) - 4 points
23rd: Hugo Lloris (France / Tottenham) - 3 points
24th: Marc-André ter Stegen (Germany / FC Barcelona), Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal / Naples) - 2 points
26th: Karim Benzema (France / Real Madrid), Georginio Wijnaldum (Netherlands / Liverpool) - 1 point
28th: Marquinhos (Brazil / PSG), Joao Felix (Portugal / Benfica Lisbon & Atletico Madrid), Donny van de Beek (Netherlands / Ajax Amsterdam) - 0 points