Cornel88: I wonder why Papie Cisse's goal against Chelsea is not even nominated in the best goal category because, it is the best goal of the season, though my opinon.

omenziate: Casillas sef dey very unserious. Ramos over Ronaldo.?

la furia: @ jarus, argetina and messi didnt vote for CR7.............In summary,everybody voted for his friend......
i thought the voting was strictly between cr7 y messi y iniesta,how did the others like ramos , alonso, ibra etc get a vote,? my point is why tell us the final three wen its obvious that i can vote for chamakh as world best player.......oh i see, you vote for the final 23, is alright

well all done and dusted....... but the fifa XI

Pharoh: They have already told neymar that he has to come to europe before he can ever win the ballon dor. So if you are not in europe where there is much visibility, hype and advertisement then just forget it lol.

Troll: The Way This Voting Is Being Done Nowadays; An African Will Never Win The Fifa Ballon D'Or. No Matter How Spectacular He Is On The Pitch. The Europeans Will Always Vote For Their Own. The Public Should Be Given Voting Power Or Else This Is Just Plainly Sentimental Bulshit. Imagine!?

Remii:

Argentina is not part of Europe and George Weah was from Liberia when he won it in 1995

Cornel88: I wonder why Papie Cisse's goal against Chelsea is not even nominated in the best goal category because, it is the best goal of the season, though my opinon.

lmm4real: If messi is insisting he is so good, let him try his trade in another club. ronaldo tried it and he is still racked among the best in the world.

Jarus:
Everybody that got nomination(by coaches, captains and journalists, even if one nomination) was among the initial long list released by FIFA way back November.

And getting the first 11 is also easy. Top ranked in each position. Messi (1st), Ronaldo (2nd), and Falcao (5th) were the top ranked forwards, so will automatically mean they are the forwards for FIFA 11. Drogba came 8th, and 4th ranked forward(after the trio). Except you want a strange formation of 4 strikers, Drogba couldn't have made First 11, despite coming 8th overall. Ditto for Pirlo. Yes, he did well, but other midfielders (Iniesta, Xavi, Xabi and who's the 4th again) ranked ahead of him, not because FIFA didn't his face but because the four guys appeared more in coaches and captains' nominations than Pirlo's.

It's that simple. I have never for once believed FIFA or CAF sit down and give someone award.

Jarus:
Everybody that got nomination(by coaches, captains and journalists, even if one nomination) was among the initial long list released by FIFA way back November.

And getting the first 11 is also easy. Top ranked in each position. Messi (1st), Ronaldo (2nd), and Falcao (5th) were the top ranked forwards, so will automatically mean they are the forwards for FIFA 11. Drogba came 8th, and 4th ranked forward(after the trio). Except you want a strange formation of 4 strikers, Drogba couldn't have made First 11, despite coming 8th overall. Ditto for Pirlo. Yes, he did well, but other midfielders (Iniesta, Xavi, Xabi and who's the 4th again) ranked ahead of him, not because FIFA didn't his face but because the four guys appeared more in coaches and captains' nominations than Pirlo's.

It's that simple. I have never for once believed FIFA or CAF sit down and give someone award.

surveyProf:

Lots of people seems not to understand how the counting of votes works, if George weah could win it, back den, the question is how did he do it? Were der no European footballer den? Or was it basic on sentiment too? Lolz

vicenzo: I might be wrong,but i don't think the WFOTY awards were decided by this type of voting process in the days of george wear, i think this style of voting is a recent thing.

surveyProf:

U can never tell, I will find out!

pak:


That was actually the process in place back then.

I remember Amokachi scoring 3 points (someguy voted him as second) while Finidi scored 1 point (third).

However, there was caveat then that you couldn't vote for a player from you country. and yes, only coaches were involved then

Jarus:
Eto'o came 3rd as recently as 2004. He was an African. Stop the racist remark. Drogba came 8th and you wont tell me he did more than the 7 guys ranked ahead of him.

Jarus:
Yeah, there are sentiments. For example, I see Algerian captain voting for Karim Benzema as no 1. That's clearly sentiment-driven. No sane football watcher would say Benzema was best player in the world in 2012. Messi, Ronaldo, Falcao, Iniesta, Xavi, all debatable, but Benzema, clearly nah. But I can see teh connection - Benzema has Algerian origin like the voter.

Also, I think contrary to his vote, Messi himself believes Ronaldo is one of the top 3 players in the world. Same for the guy that voted for Portugal. He can't tell me he sincerely believed Messi wasnt among top 3 players in the world, but he left him out to reduce his chance.

But overall, I think the voting is diverse enough to reflect true best player. The few sentiments-driven couldn't have made much difference, especially since teh difference between winner and 1st runner up is so wide.