Twitter Reacts to the Ballon d'Or Voting Breakdown

Shortly after Lionel Messi won his fifth Ballon d'Or, FIFA released a full breakdown of the voting data to the masses.

The biggest individual prize in world football is decided by a combination of national team captains, national team managers and selected journalists.

As per usual, there were plenty of eyebrows raised from some of the votes that were cast. For example, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo did not vote for each other:  

There was also plenty of reaction to England captain Wayne Rooney's votes:

"

Rooney: "Neymar top three?" Woodward: "Who do we want the most?" "Muller?" "So who's top three?" "(sigh) Muller" https://t.co/BoV7PpNWNs

— Elijah (@MrScripto) January 11, 2016"

"

Roy Hodgson's vote for Ballon d'Or went to.. 1. Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Lionel Messi 3. Eden Hazard. #BallondOr

— Daniel Feliciano (@dmf180593) January 11, 2016"

Roy Hodgson, who famously selected Javier Mascherano as his Ballon d'Or last year, also garnered attention for his choices:

"

Roy Hodgson voted for C.R in Balon D'or! When is this clown leaving? @FA

— Curt Downs (@curt_____) January 11, 2016"

Bastian Schweinsteiger showed a reasonable amount of pro-German bias with his selections:

Wales' Ashley Williams also showed some preference for a certain countryman:

"

Ashley Williams put Bale first lol

— Jacob (@JacobSamuelMc) January 11, 2016"

The same kind of bias was evident in Vincent Kompany's choices:

"

Vincent Kompany voted: 1- Eden Hazard 2- Kevin De Bruyne 3- Lionel Messi I think he started using some illegal stuff!

— Safe CHAMPION (@SafeMUFC) January 11, 2016"

"

YOU VOTED FOR HAZARD?! LMFAOOO @VincentKompany

— Welcome Ben Afra (@notRonaIdo) January 11, 2016"

Even the eminently lovable Neymar came under the cosh for his choices (which were his team-mates Messi, Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic):

"

For the Ballon D'or and TOTY to regain its integrity, Coaches and Players HAVE to stop voting. Only credible journalists should

— Leo Messi (@MessiScored) January 11, 2016"

Clearly, there is a general distrust for the Ballon d'Or voting system:

"

Honestly the player voting for ballon d'or is so pointless. They just vote for their mates ie Williams voting for Bale. So childish

— Robraf (@RobrafM) January 11, 2016"

"

Ballon d'Or voting system needs a massive revamp, need to do where a number of specialised and qualified people do the voting live on TV.

— 10 (@Febreezion) January 11, 2016"

"

Ballon D'or voting is kind of fugaga... the players a re so selfish lol. Ronaldo voted for Benzema, James Rodriguez and Bale.

— Big Verratti (@mindofcarter) January 11, 2016"

[Twitter]