Ballon d'Or 2014: How Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and More Voted

Neither Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi voted for each other in the 2014 Ballon d'Or stakes. The former triumphed during Monday's gala—which is now destined to be remembered for his throaty war cry on stage—but it seems the world's two best players didn't rate each other in the top three for the last season.

FIFA has released a full breakdown of who voted for who. As always, international coaches and captains were given the opportunity to provide five points for their main picks, with three and one going to their second and third selections.

As captains of Portugal and Argentina respectively, both Ronaldo and Messi were given the opportunity to influence results. Manuel Neuer was the only finalist to have his vote overlooked, with Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger providing the points for last year's World Cup winners.

Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images

So who did Ronaldo vote for? The Real Madrid man provided a Los Blancos one-two-three, giving full marks to Sergio Ramos, with Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema following. Messi also provided a tactical vote, choosing Argentina colleague Angel Di Maria for the main accolade with his Barcelona team-mates Andres Iniesta and Javier Mascherano grabbing the rest of his points.

This shouldn't come as a surprise. Last year, Ronaldo voted for Radamel Falcao, Bale and Mesut Ozil. Messi once again stuck to the Blaugrana 12 months ago, nominating Iniesta, Xavi and Neymar for the accolade.

Ronaldo easily toppled his opponents again this season, as highlighted by Sky Sports:

Rather humorously, England boss Roy Hodgson was among those to provide a questionable top three. The Three Lions manager opted for Mascherano as his No. 1, with Philipp Lahm and Neuer trailing just behind. Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher suggested Hodgson's style shone through with his choices:

Staying with England, current captain Wayne Rooney opted for Ronaldo, his former Manchester United team-mate. Toni Kroos and Bale followed for the man who will one day hope to be in the conversation for such a prize.

Schweinsteiger and German coach Joachim Low stuck with what they know. Neuer and Lahm were given the top two slots by both, while Low voted for Schweinsteiger in third. The Bayern Munich midfielder choose his team-mate Thomas Muller instead, an obvious attempt to boost Neuer's chances.

Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images

Other interesting tidbits saw Neymar select Messi, Ronaldo and Mascherano as his top three. The Brazilian captain was chosen first by national coach Dunga, who followed with CR7 and a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swedish skipper fell short again this year, but opted for Messi, Neuer and Ronaldo.

A number of strange votes were also made, highlighted below:

Name	Country	First Vote	Second Vote	Third Vote
Albert Roca	El Salvador (Coach)	Andres Iniesta	Lionel Messi	Neymar
Javier Aguirre	Japan (Coach)	Thibaut Courtois	Manuel Neuer	Andres Iniesta
Pietro Ghedin	Malta (Coach)	Mario Gotze	Thomas Muller	Arjen Robben
Francis Lastic	St. Lucia (Coach)	Mario Gotze	Diego Costa	James Rodriguez
Kenadid Mohamed	Djibouti (Coach)	Karim Benzema	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Lionel Messi
Luc Olliver	Tahiiti (Coach)	Paul Pogba	James Rodriguez	Manuel Neuer

Ronaldo's quality eventually shone through. Football pundit Janusz Michallik discussed the Portuguese star's third Ballon d'Or win with B/R UK's Ryan Bailey after the result was announced:

Ultimately, it's fair to say the voting process produced the correct winner. However, it's interesting to note the politics involved in reaching such a result.

Ronaldo will now strive to gain his fourth Ballon d'Or award next season, a number which would match Messi's total. With that in mind, the next year can be considered one of the biggest in the two stars' careers.