Two out of three authorized Ukrainian voters for the annual Golden Ball award selected Argentinian star and FC Barcelona marksman Lionel Messi out of a field of 23 soccer players.
National
soccer team coach Mykhailo Fomenko and squad captain Anatoliy Tymoshchuk chose the
three-time winner in the yearly survey conducted by world soccer governing body
FIFA, the nation’s soccer federation said in an online statement on Nov. 12.
A “diverse
international jury” of voters each year selects the award winner based on “on-field
performance and overall behavior on and off the pitch,” according to FIFA’s Rules of Allocation.
It consists
of national team coaches and captains from a selection of FIFA’s 209 national
associations, in addition to “special journalists,” according to a report
explaining the procedure by bleacherreport.com.
The Kyiv Post couldn’t determine which Ukrainian journalist votes for the award.
According to
the sports news website: “Only one journalist per country may vote. They are
allowed to select players who play in or are affiliated with their own
country. National team captains cannot vote for themselves, but can vote
for national or club colleagues.”
Voters for
this year’s Ballon d’Or, as FIFA officially calls it in French, got to choose
from a short list of 23 players, chosen by football experts from the FIFA Football Committee and by a group of experts from France Football. Messi’s rival for the coveted award, Portugal’s
Cristiano Ronaldo, the Golden Ball winner of the previous two years, is also on
the list.
FIFA then
will announce the final three-player shortlist on Nov. 30, with the winner set
to be announced on Jan. 11 in Zurich.
The honor is
the product of two virtually identical prizes that merged in 2010. That year,
bi-weekly magazine France Football’s Ballon d’Or combined with the men’s FIFA
World Player of the Year award.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can
be reached at [email protected].
