Vinicius only ranked 3rd in Messi’s vote.

FIFA has released details of the votes after announcing Vinicius Junior as the winner of the Best Men’s Player of the Year award at The Best 2024 awards ceremony in the early morning of December 18.

Superstar Lionel Messi only ranked 6th in the voting race for this award. The Inter Miami striker chose Lamine Yamal to win The Best 2024, following Barcelona young talent Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid) and then Vinicius.

FIFA announced the scores of the top 11 best male players of the past year. Photo: FIFA.

It is worth noting that if only the votes of coaches and reporters were counted, Rodri would have won the award, not Vinicius. The coaches gave 461 votes to the Spaniard and 438 to the Brazilian. Meanwhile, reporters gave 541 votes to Rodri, while Vinicius received 538 votes.

However, the Real Madrid star won the popular vote, with fans voting a total of 1,147,276 points for Vinicius, compared to 264,835 for Rodri and 460,887 for Jude Bellingham.

Outside the top three was Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappe, who did not vote for anyone. Likewise, Cristiano Ronaldo did not vote despite being eligible.

Many players have chosen Vinicius to win The Best award this year, including Luka Modric, Mohamed Salah, Alphonso Davies, James Rodriguez, David Alaba, Danilo, Virgil van Dijk,…

Vinicius became the first Brazilian player since 2007 to win the FIFA World Player of the Year award. At 24, he is the second youngest player in Brazilian football history to receive the prestigious individual award, behind only Ronaldo de Lima, who was honored by FIFA at the age of 20.

In addition to honoring Vinicius, FIFA also presented many other awards such as the Best Women’s Player award to Aitana Bonmati, the Best Men’s Coach award to Carlo Ancelotti, the Best Goalkeeper award to Emiliano Martinez, the Best Women’s Coach award to Emma Hayes,…