Many accusations are leveled against the Ballon d'Or award, presented by the French magazine "France Football" for the best player in the world, as being double standards and presenting interests, promotion, players' names, marketing power and fame over numbers, titles and performance.
The French magazine is scheduled to hand over the Golden Ball to the winner at a ceremony in the capital, Paris, on Monday, amid fierce competition between stars who have made various football achievements this year.
However, the specialized "Transfermarkt" website wanted to organize a vote of its own - on its official account on Instagram - that went through several stages and qualifiers, and the only voice that had the final say was back to the masses.
Although media reports and press leaks claim that Messi has already won his seventh ball and even went to the fact that the Paris Saint-Germain player informed his family and friends of this historic vote, the followers of his official account for the famous site (about 6 million) had another opinion.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Transfermarkt (@transfermarkt_official)
The specialized site began by presenting a confrontation between the players in the 32nd round, then 16 players and then 8 players qualified for the quarter-finals, and the four who reached the semi-finals: Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Mohamed Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Leva faced the "Madeira missile" and the "Egyptian King" with the "Bulga", and Lewandowski and Salah qualified for the final, winning the first with a vote percentage of 68%, compared to only 32% for Liverpool's top scorer.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Transfermarkt (@transfermarkt_official)
It was not surprising that the fans chose the captain of the Polish national team, who broke the "Gerd Muller" number, and scored more than 40 goals in the German League last season, as he has - so far - 25 goals in 20 games with Bayern Munich in all competitions.
The leaks were launched from a reliable source, the Spanish journalist Josep Pedrol, presenter of the “El Chiringuito” program specialized in football and shown on Spanish television, and wrote in a tweet that covering the Golden Ball handover ceremony what could be the ranking of the top three, and said, “Messi, Benzema, Lewandowski … ".
Italian reporter Matt Moreno reinforced the leaks of Messi winning the seventh Ballon d'Or by commenting on Twitter as well, saying, "Messi, his friends already know."
Messi, 34, won the Copa America this year, his first title with his country's first national team, but he did not leave a clear imprint, whether with Barcelona in the first half of this year or after his move to Paris Saint-Germain.