It's not a player-voted footballing award without some good old fashioned niggle - so it's time to read far too deeply into who Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi voted for in this year's inaugural FIFA 'The Best' award.
With thefull voting listrevealed, obvious things first - neither of football's biggest egotists named each other in their top three, as per usual. Tactical voting isn't just for Eurovision.
RECAP:
⚡� FIFA Awards - Ronaldo, other winners & voting breakdown"https://t.co/QoIgtzFoRc
Beyond that though, Ronaldo looks to have calmed his internal issues with Gareth Bale - if ever they truly existed - naming the Welshman as his player of the year ahead of Real Madrid teammates Luke Modric and Sergio Ramos. Pepe, despite playing with the former Manchester United man in both his Champions League and Euro 2016 triumphs, was snubbed.
Messi, meanwhile, named hunting partner Luis Suarez as his top pick after a year of spectacular goalscoring feats. Neymar slotted into his second spot, rounding out the 'MSN' love-in, while Barca legend Andres Iniesta could only worm his way into this place on his long-time teammate's list.
Two years after then-England manager Roy Hodgson was ridiculed for naming a top three of Javier Mascherano, Philipp Lahm and Manuel Neuer, Gareth Southgate penned in a relatively uncontroversial set of Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann and N'Golo Kante.
Nothing promises so much and delivers so little than scrolling down the FIFA Player of the Year award voting PDF these days
Elsewhere, both captainBilly Forbes and coach Oliver Smithof theTurks and Caicos Islands named Jamie Vardy as their number one man for the year after Leicester City's extraordinary Premier League title win, as didChinese Taipei coachKazuoKuroda and Vanuatu's media representative Raymond Nase.
Vardy's Leicester teammate Riyad Mahrez picked up a few more votes of his own, running a clean sweep of Palestinian votes from captain and coach as well as nods from Qatar, Algeria and Cuba among others.
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