FIFA Best Awards: Who voted for winner Vinicius Junior, Rodri and Lionel Messi?

Vinicius Junior was crowned the men’s player of the year at the FIFA Best awards on Tuesday night.

The 24-year-old Brazilian, who won the Champions League and La Liga with Real Madrid last season, earned 48 points in total, ahead of Manchester City’s Rodri, with 43 points, and his Madrid team-mate Jude Bellingham with 37 points.

The award was chosen by a mix of the captain of each national team, the manager of each national team, one journalist from every country and fan votes. Each group’s vote counted for 25 per cent.

Rodri, who was instrumental to Manchester City’s success last season and has been hugely missed since his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in September, won the most votes from coaches and the media, but Vinicius, who scored as Real Madrid won the Intercontinental Cup on Wednesday evening, dominated the captain and public vote.

The rest of the leaderboard comprised of Dani Carvajal in fourth, Lamine Yamal in fifth, Lionel Messi in sixth, Toni Kroos in seventh, Erling Haaland in eighth, Kylian Mbappe in ninth, Florian Wirtz in 10th and Federico Valverde in 11th.

After receiving his award from FIFA president Gianni Infantino in Doha, Qatar, Vinicius said: “I don’t even know where to begin. It was so far away that it seemed impossible to get here. I was a kid who only played football barefoot on the streets of Sao Goncalo, close to poverty and crime. Getting here is something very important to me. I’m doing it for many children who think that everything is impossible and who think they can’t get here.”

Vinicius, along with his Real team-mates, had boycotted the Ballon d’Or awards at the end of October after losing out to Rodri for the prize.

“I came, I saw, I won,” he wrote on Instagram. “Today I write this for that boy who saw so many idols lift that trophy… your time has come. That is, my time has come. The time to state that, yes, I am the best player in the world and I fought a lot to get here.”

In terms of the vote breakdown from noteworthy national team captains, Messi, last year’s winner, voted for Barcelona’s teenage star Yamal first, Mbappe second and Vinicius in third, while Mohamed Salah voted for Vinicius as his top choice, with Rodri second and Carvajal third.

Harry Kane voted for Rodri first, his England team-mate Bellingham second and Vinicius third, while Virgil van Dijk voted for Vinicius first, Haaland second and Rodri third.

Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka voted for his Bayer Leverkusen team-mate Wirtz first, followed by Kroos and Vinicius, while Poland’s Robert Lewandowski — who won this award in 2020 and 2021 — voted for Rodri first, Yamal second and Carvajal third. Norway’s Martin Odegaard voted for Vinicius, Rodri and then Haaland.

The captains of Barbados, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, St Kitts and Nevis, Spain, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Tonga and Timor-Leste all voted for Real Madrid full-back Carvajal as their first choice. The captains of Anguilla, Bangladesh, Chile, Fiji, Gibraltar, Italy, Laos, Lesotho, Malta, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti and Tunisia, meanwhile, all had Inter Miami star Messi in first place.

Mbappe was absent from FIFA’s list of captain’s votes, with no votes submitted by the French national team captain.

Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino, head coach of the USA national team, voted for reigning MLS MVP Messi in first place, followed by Rodri and Vinicius. England’s interim manager Lee Carsley picked Bellingham in first, followed by Rodri and Yamal, while Spain’s Euro 2024 winning manager Luis de la Fuente voted for the Spanish trio of Carvajal, Rodri then Yamal in that order.

In the women’s category, Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati was named the player of the year for the second year running.

Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti won men’s coach of the year, narrowly beating Xabi Alonso in second, while Emma Hayes was crowned women’s coach after winning a fifth straight WSL title at Chelsea and then an Olympic gold with the USA in the summer.

In the men’s coach section, Alonso won a greater share of the votes from national team captains but Ancelotti won a higher number from fellow coaches, the media and fans.

When voting for coach of the year, Portugal captain Bernardo Silva picked Ancelotti and Xabi Alonso ahead of Pep Guardiola, his club manager at Manchester City.

Emiliano Martinez, fresh from his incredible save for Aston Villa against Nottingham Forest at the weekend, was named best goalkeeper while Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho won the Puskas Award for his acrobatic effort against Everton in November last year.

The award recognised achievements in football from August 2023 to August 2024.

(Top photo: Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)