There is growing controversy over FIFA’s The Best Award because votes were incorrectly given to Leo Messi, according to at least two participants.
Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport have framed this as Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo being ‘robbed’ of the trophy.
If anything, Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk came in second on 38 rank points, followed by Ronaldo on 36, with Messi way out in front on 46.
There is growing controversy over FIFA’s The Best Award because votes were incorrectly given to Leo Messi, according to at least two participants.
Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport have framed this as Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo being ‘robbed’ of the trophy.
If anything, Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk came in second on 38 rank points, followed by Ronaldo on 36, with Messi way out in front on 46.
Ronaldo did not attend the ceremony in Milan last week and it is not the first time he has snubbed a FIFA awards gala in recent months.
According to today’s edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, there are some very suspicious allegations emerging from those who voted for the award.
Both Nicaragua captain Juan Barrera and Sudan Coach Zdravko Lugarosic claim they were shocked to see the list of published votes with their preferences assigned to Messi.
Barrera tweeted that “any information on my vote for #TheBest2019 was falsified, thank you.”
A statement was later released by his club warning that he “expressed his concern because his name was used in a situation where he had no participation. He did not exercise any vote and the information presented does not correspond to his criteria.”
In an even stranger twist, Sudan Coach Logarusic reportedly a picture of his votes for Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Kylian Mbappé.
However, the FIFA list has his vote changed to Lionel Messi, Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane.
The Sudan Football Federation came out afterwards to insist the 'original' was a photoshop and his vote had not been changed.