{"id":4948,"date":"2026-10-31T12:31:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T12:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/31\/ballon-dor-six-journalists-rank-messi-first\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T12:31:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T12:31:23","slug":"ballon-dor-six-journalists-rank-messi-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/31\/ballon-dor-six-journalists-rank-messi-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballon d\u2019Or: Six journalists rank Messi first"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite finishing fifth in the 2026 men\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or rankings, Lionel Messi received first-place votes from six countries, including traditional rivals Brazil.\n<\/p>\n<p>The voting breakdown released by France Football on its website on Friday showed that journalists representing Argentina, Brazil, Belarus, China, Panama and the United Arab Emirates ranked the Inter Miami forward as the best player in the world.\n<\/p>\n<p>Each journalist\u2019s first-place selection earned Messi 15 points, contributing to his final tally of 612 points.\n<\/p>\n<p>The 39-year-old finished fifth in the overall rankings, behind winner Harry Kane, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Lamine Yamal and Rodri.<\/p>\n<p>Brazil\u2019s decision to rank Messi first was among the notable voting choices, given the country\u2019s long-standing football rivalry with Argentina. <\/p>\n<div class=\"read-also\">\n<header>Related News<\/header>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Kane won the award with 1,055 points, just 28 ahead of Mbapp\u00e9, who finished second with 1,027 points. Yamal came third with 881 points, while Rodri occupied fourth position with 726 points.\n<\/p>\n<p>Messi\u2019s six first-place votes were more than the number received by 2025 winner Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, who did not finish first on any of the 100 ballots.<\/p>\n<p>Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, who placed seventh overall with 418 points, was ranked second by journalists from Burkina Faso, China, France, Georgia, Haiti, North Macedonia and Nigeria.\n<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 award was the fourth-closest men\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or vote in the competition\u2019s history, with Kane edging Mbapp\u00e9 by 28 points.\n                    <\/p>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Punch Newspapers &#8211; Latest News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite finishing fifth in the 2026 men\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or rankings, Lionel Messi received first-place votes from six countries, including traditional rivals Brazil. The voting breakdown released by France Football on&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}