Ballon D'Or trivia: Messi beat Van Dijk by only seven points!

The difference between Leo Messi and Virgil Van Dijk, of only seven points, shows this was the most disputed Ballon D'Or in the award's history. The Barcelona player reached 686 points and Liverpool's central defender, second, added 679 to confirm the most closely contested vote of all time in the award.

Additionally, Van Dijk was elected more times in first position (69) than Leo (61), which means the Argentine took the top spot thanks to the high number of votes obtained in second, third, fourth and fifth positions. HIs consistently and its regularity in all competitions was the deciding factor. 

Messi dominates the ranking of points in Africa, where he surpassed even Mané and Salah, and in South America, North America and Oceania. Van Dijk wins in Europe and Asia.

These are the votes in the different zones:

EUROPE

Messi 194 - Van Dijk 231

ASIA

Messi 134 - Van Dijk 155

SOUTH AMERICA

Messi 47 - Van Dijk 39

NORTH AMERICA

Messi 102 - Van Dijk 86

OCEANIA

Messi 22 - Van Dijk 14

AFRICA

Messi 187 - Van Dijk 154 (Mané 170)

Beyond the two talented players that fought for the awarad until the end, it should be mentioned that Kylian Mbappé was placed in first position twice (Kyrgyzstan and Slovenia), while Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mané were chosen first on 17 occasions.

A few surprises also took place: Robert Lewandowski was chosen in first place in Germany and Poland, Alisson Becker was the best for Guatemala and Ivory Coast and Trent Alexander-Arnold, hero of the semi-final, was the best in Sri Lanka. In addition, Joao Felix, Marquinhos and Donny Van de Beek received no points.

BALLON D'OR TOP 10: 

1- Lionel Messi 686
2- Virgil van Dijk 679
3- Cristiano Ronaldo 476
4- Sadio Mané 347
5- Mohamed Salah 178
6- Kylian Mbappé 89
7- Alisson 67
8- Robert Lewandowski 44
9- Bernardo Silva 41
10- Riyad Mahrez 33