Reports that Sudan head coach Zdravko Logarusic had his FIFA Men's Best Player award vote rigged have proven to be a photoshop from a Cristiano Ronaldo fan.
After receiving 46 points in the voting, Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi beat Van Dijk and Ronaldo to claim the prize at the ceremony in Milan and FIFA then released the full list of votes so fans could see the selections from all the captains and managers.
There was a story doing the rounds that Logarusic, who manages the Sudan national team, had actually voted for Mohamed Salah as number one, with his teammate Sadio Mane and PSG boy-wonder Kylian Mbappe also in the top three.
To add to the fishy smell, a screenshot of his supposed voting ballot complete with his name and signature emerged. However, this was entirely false as the form that circulated was actually a pretty bad photoshop. Look out for the faint marks.
Some "quotes" from Logarusic and how his vote had been changed also made the rounds but were also fake. His official vote saw him pick Messi first, Van Dijk second and Mane third.
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But controversy regarding the voting is still present because Nicaragua captain Juan Barrera is down to have selected Messi on the FIFA voting slips despite claiming he didn't even cast a vote this year.
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."
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, Football, Lionel Messi
