Ballon d'Or 2014 Top Three: Results breakdown by Football Federations
FIFA Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Real Madrid poses after the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala 2013 at the Kongresshaus on January 13, 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Now that the polls are out, here is a detailed breakdown of votes separated by each continents. The votes counted are by national team coaches, captains and media, each of them being allowed to vote for three players. The votes carried 5, 3, 1 points respectively.
Lionel Messi of Barcelona was the close winner from the votes enacted from the Asian Football Federation beating Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid with a mere 0.13 % of votes. Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich was however falling behind by 4 %.
Indian skipper Sunil Chhetri’s choices were Franck Ribery, Cristiano Ronaldo and Andres Iniesta. It comes out as a suprise given that Chhetri has always been an ardent Lionel Messi supporter.
Votes from the Asian Football Federation.
Franck Ribery was clearly the best player, if you go by the votes cast by the European coaches, captains and journalists.
Spanish skipper Iker Casillas voted for Cristiano Ronaldo, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben while the Portuguese player went for Falcao, his former team-mate Mesut Özil and Gareth Bale. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi didn’t vote for each other. We are not quite sure whether if it’s ego or their biassed opinions towards their friends and team-mates.
Votes from the European Football Federation.
Africa surely loved Cristiano Ronaldo this season more than any other player as he managed to get higher number of votes than both the other two in every category. Ivory Coast captain voted for Yaya Toure, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo; Samuel Etoo, however didn’t feel Cristiano Ronaldo was good enough with him going for Yaya Touré, Lionel Messi and team-mate Eden Hazard.
Votes from the African Football Federation.
Both Clint Dempsey of the United States and Hutchinson Atiba of Canada voted for Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo would have been an easy winner from this federation, but the media in North and Central America clearly felt that Lionel Messi had an edge over the Real Madrid forward this season.
Votes from the North and Central American Football Federation.
Even though not very surprising, Lionel Messi emerged as the clear-cut winner from South America with almost half of the votes towards him.
Lionel Messi picked his team-mates Andrés Iniesta, Xavi and Neymar while Brazil skipper Thiago Silva voted for Messi, his team-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Votes from the South American Football Federation.
Winning almost 50 % of the votes from Oceania, Cristiano Ronaldo sealed his Ballon d’Or award with Lionel Messi receiving 42.15 % of the votes and Ribery falling short by a big margin.
Australian skipper O’Neil Lucas, however felt that Franck Ribery was a better choice as he nominated Ribéry, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo for the coveted award.
Votes from the Ocenia Football Federation.
For a detailed overview of the votes cast by the coaches and captains, head over to this article.