If the number of votes allocated to each of the 30 candidates for the Ballon d'Or 2021 was no longer a secret, the details of these votes had not yet filtered.
It has been done since Friday evening, when we now know with a little more precision the choice of 170 journalists - and not 180 - invited to designate the winner of the prestigious trophy, awarded Monday to Lionel Messi.
Thus, if the Argentine winner crushed all competition for 59 countries - against 45 for the Pole Robert Lewandowski (2nd) and 30 for the Italian Jorginho (3rd) -, some notable choices were made. Started with those concerning our French, with a Karim Benzema who was popular with ten countries. Bulgaria, Comoros, Spain, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Oman, Tunisia, Tahiti, Chad and Togo put Real Madrid's scorer at the top of their standings. In Algeria, where it has its origins, Benzema is not however in the top 5, while in France, "KB9" is placed third behind Robert Lewandowski and Messi.
The vote of the journalist from Kyrgyzstan for the Ballon d'Or:
1. CR7
2. Jorginho
3. Benzema
4. Bonucci
5. Lukaku
The vote of the journalist from Uzbekistan for the Ballon d'Or:
1. Mbappé
2. Mount
3 Messi
4. Chiellini
5. De Bruyne
For the rest, buy @francefootball!
- Ali Farhat (@derpariser) December 3, 2021
The calculation of the Argentinian journalist
Finally 5th, N'Golo Kanté also had the right to some honors, placed first on five occasions. Winner of the Champions League, the Chelsea player would have earned the Ballon d'Or for Aruba, Sao Tome and Principe, Estonia, Azerbaijan and Portugal. A little further behind, despite a solid season with PSG and the France team, Kylian Mbappé (9th) should have been the big winner for Cameroon and ... Uzbekistan.
In the radius of even more astonishing choices, we find a Kevin de Bruyne (8th) in the lead for Iceland.
Like Macau, Kyrgyzstan and the Cayman Islands had made Cristiano Ronaldo (6th) their favorite, although the author of a season less in sight than usual.
Finally, the palm of objectivity, one might say ironically, is awarded to our Argentinian colleague.
Who, probably aware of Robert Lewandowski's threat to Lionel Messi, put the Bayern Munich striker out of his top 5.
Hats off to the New Zealand jury of FF, @Gordon_Watson, who for the 2nd edition in a row finds the final quintet of the soundtrack in order.
👏🇳🇿
In 2019, he shared this feat with the Seychelles.
And in 2021 with Vietnam.
Elementary my dear Watson !
pic.twitter.com/2yxCrYXe2L
- Beneddra Naïm (@BeneddraNaim) December 3, 2021
Finally, we applaud with both hands the New Zealand journalist, who for the second time in a row, has placed the first five in the correct order.
In 2019, already, Gordon Watson of OFC TV had laid down the names of Messi, Virgil van Dijk, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah.
Elementary my dear Watson.
