The 2015 Ballon d’Or ceremony was held in Zurich Switzerland on Monday night and Lionel Messi was crowned the best player in the world yet again. This is his fifth Ballon d’Or – a new record and one that will take some time to surpass as nobody else has more than three.
Messi was an overwhelming favourite with 41.33% of the votes while Real Madrid’s Ronaldo came in second with 27.76%. Messi’s Barcelona teammate Neymar came in third with just 7.86% of the votes.
2015 Ballon d’Or: Who did the captains vote for?
The winners of the prestigious award are voted for by national team captains of all member associations of FIFA. Not only them, even the coaches and one media representative from the respective countries vote for three players. The first player they pick is given five points, the second player three points and the third player is given one point.
Once all the votes are counted, the player with the highest points wins the FIFA Ballon d’Or. FIFA released a document with the list of all captains, coaches and media representatives from member nations and who they voted for.
We have listed a few of the famous players and who they voted for below. As has always been the case, most captains have voted either for teammates at their club or the national team. The same was witnessed last year as well when Ronaldo took home the coveted trophy.
| COUNTRY | CAPTAIN | FIRST CHOICE | SECOND CHOICE | THIRD CHOICE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | Lionel Messi | Luis Suarez | Neymar | Andres Iniesta |
| Australia | Mile Jedinak | Cristiano Ronaldo | Robert Lewandowski | Neymar |
| Belgium | Vincent Kompany | Eden Hazard | Kevin De Bruyne | Lionel Messi |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina | Edin Dzeko | Cristiano Ronaldo | Eden Hazard | Lionel Messi |
| Brazil | Neymar | Lionel Messi | Luis Suarez | Ivan Rakitic |
| Colombia | James Rodriguez | Cristiano Ronaldo | Karim Benzema | Gareth Bale |
| Czech Republic | Petr Cech | Lionel Messi | Robert Lewandowski | Eden Hazard |
| Denmark | Daniel Agger | Lionel Messi | Cristiano Ronaldo | Luis Suarez |
| England | Wayne Rooney | Lionel Messi | Thomas Muller | Cristiano Ronaldo |
| France | Hugo Lloris | Lionel Messi | Cristiano Ronaldo | Neymar |
| Germany | Bastian Schweinsteiger | Manuel Neuer | Thomas Muller | Neymar |
| India | Sunil Chhetri | Lionel Messi | Cristiano Ronaldo | Neymar |
| Mexico | Andres Guardado | Lionel Messi | Cristiano Ronaldo | Neymar |
| Netherlands | Arjen Robben | Lionel Messi | Neymar | Luis Suarez |
| Poland | Robert Lewandowski | Manuel Neuer | Artuto Vidal | Thomas Muller |
| Portugal | Cristiano Ronaldo | Karim Benzema | James Rodriguez | Gareth Bale |
| Republic of Ireland | Robbie Keane | Cristiano Ronaldo | Lionel Messi | Neymar |
| Serbia | Branislav Ivanovic | Lionel Messi | Eden Hazard | Neymar |
| Sweden | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Lionel Messi | Luis Suarez | Neymar |
| Turkey | Arda Turan | Lionel Messi | Neymar | Luis Suarez |
| Uruguay | Diego Godin | Luis Suarez | Thomas Muller | Robert Lewandowski |
| USA | Michael Bradley | Lionel Messi | Cristiano Ronaldo | Luis Suarez |
| Wales | Ashley Williams | Gareth Bale | Lionel Messi | Robert Lewandowski |
Top 10 nominees for 2015 Ballon d’Or
After all the votes were counted, the final list was:-
- Lionel Messi – Barcelona/Argentina
- Cristiano Ronaldo – Real Madrid/Portugal
- Neymar – Barcelona/Brazil
- Robert Lewandowski – Bayern Munich/Poland
- Luis Suarez – Barcelona/Uruguay
- Thomas Muller – Bayern Munich/Germany
- Manuel Neuer – Bayern Munich/Germany
- Eden Hazard – Chelsea/Belgium
- Andres Iniesta – Barcelona/Spain
- Alexis Sanchez – Arsenal/Chile
