Sri Lankan journalist Hafiz Marikar is responsible for the strangest Ballon d'Or votes ever

A journalist from Sri Lanka earned himself a reputation for some 'interesting' choices in the Ballon d'Or voting, with some of his previous winners including Leonardo Bonucci and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

So how does the voting system work? In the build-up to Monday's ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet, a journalist from each of the top 100 nations in the FIFA world rankings selected their top five players from a 30-man shortlist.

In regards to point scoring, the player ranked first on a voter's form will receive six points; second is given four; third – three points; fourth – two points and fifth is one.

If players are tied on overall points, the number of first-place votes will be used as a tie-breaker.

After the ceremony is done and dusted, votes will be made public, meaning every journalist will be analysed [and potentially scrutinised] for their choices.

In years gone by, there have been some 'unusual' voting patterns, to say the least. And perhaps the most infamous of them all comes from Sri Lanka.

The Daily News journalist Hafiz Marikar has a wild history when it comes to the Ballon d'Or.

To kick things off, Marikareve pulled no punches in 2017 when he opted for top five of Harry Kane, Eden Hazard, Radamel Falcao, David de Gea and his winner, Leonardo Bonucci, who had just reached a Champions League final with Juventus.

A year later, he decided to vote for Eden Hazard as his number one, with Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino coming in second ahead of Paul Pogba, Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane.

Joe Cole thought Eden Hazard could have won the Ballon d'Or if he had a different mindset 🧠 pic.twitter.com/sHBZWJzPo9

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 10, 2023

Finally, in 2019, Marikar ended his three-year stint on the Ballon d'Or voting panel with his most outrageous shout.

The journalist picked full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold as his winner for 2019. Of course, Trent's clever corner-kick against Barcelona in the Champions League was certainly impressive, but was it enough to warrant the coveted prize?

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Antoine Griezmann completed his top three, while Robert Lewandowski and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen were his fourth and fifth votes.

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