This archive report was first published on 24 September 2019.
On September 24, 2019, Lionel Messi was crowned the Best FIFA Player of the Year, beating Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk to the prestigious award.
According to the voting results, Messi garnered 46 per cent of the scoring points, with Van Dijk finishing second having attracted 38 per cent of the votes.
Interestingly, while Van Dijk picked Messi to win the award, Ronaldo surprisingly settled for Matthijs de Ligt, omitting Messi entirely from his top three.
However, Messi's choice of the top three included Ronaldo, but his no.1 choice left everyone stunned - he picked Sadio Mane, who had an arguably superb campaign in the 2018/19 season.
Mane helped Liverpool to their Champions League triumph and a second-place finish for the Reds in the Premier League, bagging the Golden Boot award in the process.
It's worth noting that votes were counted from the world's international captains, their managers, and a selected media personality from each country, with each individual required to pick three candidates.
Each candidate's ranking earned points, with the top choice earning five points, the second-placed player three points, and the third-placed player one point.
