The Ballon d’Or is over for another year, and what we already knew has been confirmed – Cristiano Ronaldo’s the winner.
It was almost inevitable that CR7 would walk away with the trophy after winning the Champions League and European Championships with Real Madrid and Portugal respectively.
Almost equally likely was that Lionel Messi would finish in second place, so for once, perhaps the most interesting element of the awards ceremony was who would finish elsewhere.
La Liga dominated the shortlist, but there were a few Premier League names who did rather well – Riyad Mahrez, for example, capped off an excellent year by coming seventh.
However, there were also those who will have been left embarrassed by the voting stats, including Manchester City pair Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne, as reported in the Daily Mail.
Neither player received a single vote, though at least they weren’t alone in the unwanted achievement.
In total, eleven players received no votes. Hugo Lloris, Manuel Neuer, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Ramos, Koke, Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain, Diego Godin, and Thomas Muller were the others.
It raises serious questions about whether too many players are being nominated, but to make it onto the shortlist at all must be a consolation.
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