FIFA disclosed all the votes that were cast for the Ballon d’Or award, and Pandev, who had a vote by being captain of Macedonia, surprisingly left out both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
For the Ballon d’Or, every coach and captain of a FIFA member is given a vote along with select members of the media. For Macedonia, the votes were cast by Pandev, Stratev (he was the manager when the voting took place) and one more media member named Boro Timkovski.
Although FIFA announced Ronaldo, Messi and Franck Ribéry as the three nominees for the award, voters can still omit those players if they choose. Pandev did as his ballot consisted a top three of Ribéry, Edinson Cavani and Radamel Falcao. As a disclosure, Cavani, now at PSG in France, formerly was a teammate of Pandev’s at Napoli. Stratev, meanwhile, chose from FIFA’s three nominees as his order was Messi, Ribéry and then Ronaldo.
In the end, the eventual winner of this year’s prestigious award was Ronaldo with 1,365 points. Messi finished second with 1,205 points, while Ribéry came in third with 1,127 points.
To view the results of all of the votes that were cast, click here.