Official results of how footballers voted in the just-concluded 2024 Ballon d’Or awards has emerged with shocking voting decisions uncovered, MySportDab reports.
Noting pertinently, the 2024 Ballon d’Or award ceremony went down the wires of arguments and controversies.
While the award hasn’t been devoid of wrangles from inception, the 2024 edition seemed to have slipped deeper into the banes of controversies and disputes.
Particularly, Real Madrid had to boycott the award in the last minute when they learned their forward and prime favorite for the Men’s honor – Vinicius Jr – wasn’t going to win the award.
Now, the voting results is out with the number of votes garnered by the nominees’ revealed. In the Kopa Trophy category, awarded to the best young players, one can only be wowed by the strange pattern of voting by the footballers.
Some youngsters lost the endorsement of their teammates in the national team as the race slimmed down to discrete statistics of performance.
Particularly, Lionel Messi seemed not much impressed with the performance of his Argentina teammate Alejandro Garnacho compared to other nominees in the list.
Messi only left Alejandro Garnacho with his third vote. His second vote went to Barcelona and Spanish youngster Pau Cubarsi while his first and most important vote was for Lamine Yamal.
While Messi’s voting choice may raise eyebrows especially due to Garnacho being a big fan of his rival Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi appeared to have pecked down his choice to performance instead of national team affiliation.
Notably, Garnacho had a better league tally – 7 goals with 4 assists – than Lamine, who had 5 goals and 5 assists last season.
However, the latter had a more successful club and international campaign. He won Euros Best Young Player of the tournament in addition to the trophy.
Garnacho won 2024 Copa America but played a lesser role in the Argentina squad as Lamine Yamal did for Spain.
