This archive report was first published on 26 September 2019.
On Monday, Barcelona forward Lionel Messi won the award for a record sixth time, beating Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk and five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, the votes from Egypt, which could have potentially impacted the outcome, were not counted due to a technicality.
According to FIFA, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) captain Ahmed Elmohamady and then-coach Shawky Gharib both picked Salah as their first choice, but their votes were missing from a list released by FIFA.
The EFA had sent forms with Elmohamady and Gharib's votes for Salah well before the deadline, but FIFA said the forms were invalid because the signatures were in capital letters and they were not signed by the EFA general secretary, which was mandatory.
"The Egyptian FA have received two reminders to submit the properly signed voting forms on 19 August 2019," a FIFA spokesperson said.
"The Egyptian FA has not submitted a response within the (limited) timeframe until Wednesday, 21 August 2019. Therefore, the votes from the Egyptian FA could not be counted."
