Ahead of the upcoming Ballon d'Or ceremony, the Moroccan coach has revealed his reasons for choosing one player over the others.

Recently, the three nominees for the upcoming Ballon d'Or were announced. Two spots, naturally, most figured would go to La Liga star duo Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as the Barcelona and Real Madrid aces have won every single prize since 2008. The third spot, however, went to Bayern Munich's World Cup winning goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Despite the German star's impressive credentials, namely winning the Champions League and the World Cup in two successive years, many doubt that Neuer will stand a chance against the Argentinian and Portuguese attackers. Simply put, it will be yet another battle between two of the world's top players and now, interestingly, Morocco's national team coach has come out and bluntly stated his reasons why he will not be voting for Neuer.

Although Badou Zaki was a shot-stopper in his playing days, having featured for Real Mallorca, he nonetheless has claimed that he will not support Neuer's candidacy. The reason?

"As a former goalkeeper myself, I don't think Manuel Neuer deserves to win. Germany won the World Cup with teamwork, not thanks to one player," he recently stated in an interview.

"There's a lot of goalkeepers who were even more brilliant than Neuer but didn't get the same appreciation from Fifa. [So, instead], I voted for [Cristiano] Ronaldo as [I feel] he deserved it.

"He did stunning things this year such as winning Copa del Rey and the Champions League [as well as]  individual awards like the Pichichi and was the Champions League's top goalscorer last season, and also the best La Liga player."

In short, Zaki believes that the coveted prize should go to the player who has displayed the best individual achievments over the calendar year, not one who happened to be part of a collective that won trophies.

Interesting logic, perhaps, because his pick, Cristiano Ronaldo, certainly enjoyed his own personal success but obviously would not have won the Champions League without the support of his teammates...not unlike Neuer winning the World Cup with die Mannschaft this summer.

The question then becomes, how can a goalkeeper or let's say defender, who obviously will not score as many goals as attackers then be recognized for his achievements?

The last defender to win the prize was Azzurri star Fabio Cannavaro following Italy's World Cup triumph in 2006 and as things stand now, it does not look likely for a non-attacker to win the prize anytime soon.