FIFA have denied corruption claims after a player claimed he did not vote for Lionel Messi despite the forms saying otherwise.
After a sublime 51-goal campaign last term, Barcelona talisman Messi beat Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo to the prize - accruing 46 points in the voting according to FIFA.
FIFA then released the full list of votes so that we could all discover that Ronaldo had elected to not vote for Messi yet again despite speaking glowingly of his long-time rival in recent times.
And the voting forms show that Nicaragua captain Juan Barrera is down to have selected Messi as his number one pick, with Sadio Mane in second and Ronaldo in third.
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However, the man himself says he didn't even vote at all and Twitter uses have claimed corruption as a result:
"I did not vote for Messi," Barrera explained to La Prensa.
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"Last year I voted, but this time I did not."
SPORTbible contacted FIFA for comment and a spokesman issued the following statement: "We have checked the voting documents submitted by the Nicaraguan FA and all documents are signed and confirmed with the official stamp of the Nicaraguan FA.
"Having compared with the vote sheets submitted by the federation and the ones we have published on FIFA.com, we confirm that we have the right votes signed by the player. We are asking the Nicaraguan Football Federations to inquire on this matter."
Topics: Football News, Barcelona, Messi, Lionel Messi, Ballon d'Or, Virgil Van Dijk, Cristiano Ronaldo
