By Miguel Rapetti
The controversy aroused by the awarding of the Ballon d’Or to Lionel Messi last Monday was heard by the organizers of the trophy, France Football, who this Saturday decided to make public the votes from around the world that ultimately gave him the 8th prize of his race to the Argentine.
According to the numbers released by France Football, Messi had an advantage of more than 100 points over the second Erling Haaland and almost 200 more votes than the Frenchman Kylian Mbappé.
In total, Inter Miami’s number 10 obtained 462 points, while Haaland accumulated 357 while the PSG forward added 270.
The Argentine’s advantage is normal within what is usual in this vote that brings together journalists from 92 countries, much lower than last year, when the Frenchman Karim Benzema surpassed the Senegalese Sadio Mané by 356 points.
Messi received votes from 87 of the 92 journalists, all except those from Cameroon, Cape Verde, Jordan, Salvador and Switzerland, and 65 of all those votes put him in first place.
The Costa Rican jury, journalist Rodrigo Antonio Calvo Castro, was the only one who voted for the five in the order in which they were finally placed.
Belgian Kevin De Bruyne was fourth with 100 votes, ahead of his Manchester City teammate, Spaniard Rodri, who had 57, and Real Madrid’s Brazilian Vinícius Jr., with 49.
City’s Argentine Julián Álvarez was seventh with 28 votes, ahead of Napoli’s Nigerian Victor Osimhen, with 24, City’s Portuguese Bernardo Silva with 20 and Real Madrid’s Croatian Luka Modric with 19.
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