Even Cristiano Ronaldo admitted that Leo Messi was a worthy winner when he collected the FIFA World Player award to go with the Ballon d'Or.

 

As has already been argued here before, the Portuguese forward, who last year claimed he was "first, second and third favourite", could hardly say otherwise: arguably no player has ever presented a case as water-tight as Messi has this season and that was reflected in the margin of victory.

 

Messi wins in a landslide

 

Messi collected 1073 votes - more than anyone else ever. His lead over Ronaldo in second was over 700 votes - the biggest gap in history. Next came Xavi and in fifth was Andres Iniesta. So far, so good. Iniesta and Xavi won the treble. Iniesta was man of the match in the Champions League final; Xavi is the man that imposes the style upon Barcelona and a record-breaking Spanish national team.

 

But we've been here before. And that's not the point. The point is that sandwiched between them was Kaka. And that's much more questionable. Sometimes, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that signing for Real Madrid - regardless of what you actually do on the pitch - is worth a few hundred votes on its own. Are we really so easily swayed? Are we really so susceptible to the marketing men and the headlines, to someone else's chequebook?

 

Kaka was named player of the tournament at the Confederations Cup - significant but not the most important date in the international calendar - and apart from that he was, in the words of one reporter at the Gazetta dello Sport, "distinctly average all year." He scored 16 goals in 36 games (not a bad total), in a side that won nothing, came third in Serie A and didn't even play in the Champions League. World's best this year? What's he doing there?

 

But then what do we know? We're only journalists and fans. When the FIFA World Player award was set up, the Ballon d'Or had already been running for over 30 years. The advantage of the FIFA World Player award, they said, was that it was voted on by the coaches and captains of the planet's national teams.

 

People, in other words, who actually know what they're talking about.

 

Should players be given the right to vote?

 

But do they? And if they do, do they say what they really think, free from the pressures of who they represent, unafraid of what the media and their fans will say? And, if so, how come they come up with such strange choices?

 

One of the most interesting things about the FIFA World Player award is that not only do you get the final result, but you get to see the actual votes, too. There's no secret ballot here. You get to see, for example, that Marcello Lippi went for Messi, Xavi and Iniesta in that order. You get to see that somehow Alexandr Hleb managed to not vote for anyone in first place, but had Messi second and Iniesta third. You get to see every single vote cast; every single player rewarded with a mention.

 

All of which makes it all seem so bizarre. There are startlingly few different players voted for at all - there's no Dani Alves for example, or Gerard Pique - which might be natural because certain players have so clearly outshone others and there are few realistic choices, but some of the players who have been voted for leave you open-mouthed. Some of them frankly aren't realistic at all.

 

Unusual choices are both interesting and actually quite revealing when players vote for someone that they have come up against and found incredibly hard to play, as happens for example with the English Player of the Year Awards (although that award has other major faults, like the fact that it is voted upon ludicrously early). The defender who says, "you know what? I really struggled against Jermaine Defoe more than anyone else this season so I'm going to vote for him," tells you something.

 

But in the FIFA World Player that's rarely the case.

 

How did Drogba gain so many votes?

 

What did Didier Drogba do last year apart from throw a coin at fans and get himself banned for shouting "this is a f-cking disgrace" at television cameras following the Champions League semifinal? He scored 5 in 24 league games, 14 in all competitions, and was part of a side that only won the FA Cup, that's what.

 

Yet nine people voted for Drogba as their no. 1.

 

Only one voted for Samuel Eto'o. Who scored the opening goal in the Champions league final, won the treble and scored 30 in the Spanish league.

 

How can that be?

 

Perhaps defenders voted having had a torrid time with Drogba? Premier League defenders or Africans who faced him in World Cup qualifying, maybe Europeans who struggled in the Champions League; coaches whose teams couldn't handle him

 

Perhaps not.

 

His votes came from Argentina (Maradona), Mauritius (Johna Marmitte), Brazil (Lucio), Myanmar (Colin Benjamin and Mamic Drago), Norway (Egil Olsen) and France (Domenech). Plus Peter Mgangira from Malawi, who did play against Drogba. Plus one other, who didn't play against Drogba either. And, in fact, never has.

 

Maybe there are other reasons, reasons that pretty much make a mockery of the vote; that make you wonder if there is any point at all, if asking footballers is really such a good idea.

 

Because the other person who voted for Drogba in first pace also chose Michael Ballack in second.

 

Who voted for Michael Ballack?

 

Yes, Michael bloody Ballack. And not Messi. Or Ronaldo. Or Torres. Or Xavi. No. He went for the man who scored one (count them, erm,  it. One. Uno. Un.) goal in 29 league games, missed eleven Premier League matches and didn't score a single strike in the Champions League; the man whose impact on the season was utterly negligible.

 

The reason, you might surmise, is obvious: like the Saudi Arabian captain Yasser Al-Qhatami, who's presumably a bit of a Chelsea fan and gave all three votes to players from Stamford Bridge, this voter will be from some backwater that knows nothing about football and hasn't seen any decent games all year.

 

He'll be some rubbish coach from some rubbish country. After all, you look at that list above and see Mauritius and Namibia.

 

This other voter will be another one like them, easily dismissed and laughed at.

 

After all, one of the most important criticisms that has been made of the FIFA World Player award is that lots of coaches and players from small countries simply vote for the one guy they have heard of when in fact they haven't got a clue.

 

It is an uncomfortable argument, both patronizing and frankly insulting.

 

It is also rubbish.

 

Look at that list again.

 

Lucio and Maradona, Domenech and Olsen.

 

And the other man who, somehow, chose Drogba as number one and Ballack as number two ... who is the man who perpetrated such a crime?

 

Some fool from a far away land? Some tin pot player from a tin pot nation who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near these awards? Some guy who never sees any decent football, no doubt.

 

Or England's John Terry.