The Ballon d’Or gala was held at the Kongresshaus in Zurich on January 11, 2016 to reward the top performing footballers in the world in 2015. Behind the scenes, top-ranking journalists, footballers and coaches across the world were required to vote for their preferred winner of the prestigious award.
During the voting process, each journalist was required to choose their top three players. The three players were ranked from the first position to the third. The player in the first position earned five points, the second position was entitled to three points, while the third position had only one point.
Interestingly, the media in Portugal didn’t put their favourite son Cristiano Ronaldo first during the voting process. Also surprisingly, the Brazilian media did not award Neymar the first place in the voting process. Even more shocking was the fact that the Swedish media did not even include the winner Lionel Messi in the top three slots.
In our special post-Ballon d’Or feature, we look at how the media from the top 20 countries voted for the Ballon d’Or nominees before Lionel Messi was announced the winner, according to an official list released by FIFA.
1. Argentina – Enrique Sacco: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Luis Suarez
2. Brazil – Cleber Machado: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Neymar
3. China – Luo Ming: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Luis Suarez; 3) Cristiano Ronaldo
4. England – Henry Winter: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Neymar
5. France – Gerard Ejnes: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Luis Suarez
6. Germany – Karlheinz Wild: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Thomas Muller; 3) Cristiano Ronaldo
7. Ghana – Michael Oti Adjei: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Neymar
8. India – Dhiman Sarkar: 1) Cristiano Ronaldo; 2) Robert Lewandowski; 3) Neymar
9. Italy – Paolo Condo: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Robert Lewandowski; 3) Neymar
10. Malaysia – Rizal Hashim: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Luis Suarez; 3) Javier Mascherano
11. Mexico – Salvador Aguilera: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Luis Suarez
12. Netherlands – Frans van den Nieuwenhof: 1) Cristiano Ronaldo; 2) Luis Suarez; 3) Lionel Messi
13. Nigeria – Samm Audu: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Neymar
14. Portugal – Joaquim Rita: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Neymar
15. Russia – Konstantin Kleshchev: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Robert Lewandowski
16. South Africa – Mark Gleeson: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Neymar
17. Spain: Alfredo Relano: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Neymar
18. Sweden – Anders Bengtsson: 1) Cristiano Ronaldo; 2) Robert Lewandowski; 3) Manuel Neueur
19. Turkey – Selçuk Manav: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Neymar
20. USA – Paul Kennedy: 1) Lionel Messi; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo; 3) Neymar
