Lionel Messi may have won a record-extending seventh Golden Ball on Monday, but he still sits some way behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the all-time points list.
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Ronaldo has won the Ballon d'Or five times during his own glittering career and claimed 3,781 points from nominations of the award, as opposed to 3,574 for Messi.The duo's domination of the award since 2008 leaves them well clear of the rest in the list of the most nominations, as this countdown from 2020 reveals.
Luka Modric and Virgil van Dijk were the only two current stars listed in the top ten most nominated players, and includes a host of legendary greats such as: Johan Cruyff, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo Nazario.
This year's award to Messi has proven to be controversial to say the least, with many citing Robert Lewandowski as a more worthy winner - the Argentine admitted the Poland captain deserved the prize after last year's event was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Lothar Matthaus was among the others leading the plaudits for Lewandowski, while Toni Kroos believes his Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema should have taken top spot in this year's voting.
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Messi gained 613 points to take the accolade, while Lewandowski was given 580. It was a small winning margin, but was some way bigger than the measly seven points which separated the "little flea" from Van Dijk in 2019, according to the Evening Standard.
If the Bayern Munich frontman still feels hard done by, he can take consolation from the fact that Kevin Keegan and Alfredo Di Stefano both missed out by only three points under previous voting systems in 1972 and 1956 respectively.
So, the Ballon d'or result may have been decided on Monday, but the argument surrounding who the worthiest winner is will continue to rumble on.
Topics: Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi, Ballon d'Or, Cristiano Ronaldo
