It became known how the votes of the journalists who determined the winner of the “Golden Ball” award from France Football were distributed.
According to the results of the vote, Lionel Messi became the footballer of the year - the Argentine updated his own achievement and won the award for a record seventh time.
But Messi's victory was not unconditional: in the voting of France Football experts, the forward with 613 points was not much ahead of Robert Lewandowski. The Pole got 580 votes from journalists.
Messi won the America's Cup with Argentina in 2021. Lewandowski became the German champion with Bayern Munich and scored 41 goals in the Bundesliga.
According to Eurosport, journalist Alexander Vershinin took part in the voting on behalf of Turkmenistan, who cast his votes as follows: 1 - Lionel Messi, 2 - Kevin De Bruyne, 3 - Lautaro Martinez, 4 - Romelu Lukaku, 5 - Pedri.
Lionel Messi was voted first by journalists from South America, Asia, Oceania and CONCACAF countries. Apart from Europe, only Africa put Lewandowski in first place.