Who voted for who? A roundup of interesting picks for FIFA's Best awards
FIFA’s Best award ceremony has come to a close, and the lucky winners now celebrate their individual accolades in London before returning to footballing action later in the week.
Cristiano Ronaldo walked away with the Best Men’s Player award, while Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane took home the Best Men’s Coach award. But who voted for them? There were a few interesting selections.
Messi votes for Neymar
Despite Neymar making a huge switch to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer transfer window, his former Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi still gave the Brazilian a vote as captain of Argentina. Messi gave his first-place vote to Luis Suarez, and his second-place vote to Andres Iniesta, but tipped Neymar third.
He also voted for Luis Enrique for the head coach award, as well as Pep Guardiola and Diego Simeone.
Manuel Neuer goes off the board
Rather than picking between Messi or Ronaldo, Germany shot-stopper Manuel Neuer opted to vote for his compatriot Toni Kroos as well as his Bayern Munich teammates Robert Lewandowski and Arturo Vidal, in that order. There was no hard feelings for recently-fired Bayern boss Carlo Ancelotti, either, as Neuer voted the Italian second, behind Joachim Low and ahead of Pep Guardiola.
Zidane the heavy favourite
Of the 458 votes cast by national team captains, managers, and members of media, Zidane was the clear favourite for the Best Men’s Coach award. In fact, the French tactician was given a vote by nearly every single person. He earned 350 first-place votes, and was also included as either second or third 72 times out of the remaining 108 voters.
Ronaldo snubs Fernando Santos?
Cristiano Ronaldo pulled no punches in his ballot, voting solely for his Real Madrid teammates Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos, and Marcelo. He did not give a nod to Portugal boss Fernando Santos, however, giving his coach’s votes to Zidane, Jose Mourinho, and Leonardo Jardim of AS Monaco.
Worth a nod or two
Players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Paulo Dybala, and N’Golo Kante broke through the endless void of Ronaldo and Messi votes from time to time, but there were a few strange choices in the list. Captains from San Marino, Costa Rica, Dominica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala all saw fit to cast a vote for Real Madrid shot-stopper Keylor Navas. Spain manager Julen Lopetegui gave Dani Carvajal the nod, as did the captain and head coach of Sudan. Finally, Brazil manager Tite – whose work has gone largely unnoticed in Europe – earned a respectable 41 votes. Not too shabby.
