Football Rumors: Lionel Messi To Win Ballon D’Or, Cristiano Ronaldo Placed At Fourth In Leak Of Alleged Results

Lionel Messi is the clear winner of this year’s Ballon D’Or based on a suspected list of winners leaked by an anonymous source prior to the ceremonies scheduled on Monday night in Paris.

The “leaked list” was posted and shared on Twitter by football fans, most especially the FC Barcelona fans as their very own Messi could just be served his sixth Golden Ball.

The Argentine superstar gathered 446 points based on the report, while Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk trails at second with 382. Interestingly, Lionel Messi’s archrival Cristiano Ronaldo is placed fourth with 133 as Van Dijk's teammate Mohamed Salah surprisingly completed the top three with 179.

Liverpool’s Sadio Mane and Alisson Becker are listed fifth and sixth with 97 points and 82 points, respectively. Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint Germain is at seventh with 55 points, followed by Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong with 30 points, Juventus’ Matthijs de Ligt having 29 and Eden Hazard of Real Madrid with 21 points to complete the top 10.

The Mirror, though, reiterated that the leaked results are uncertain as to being official. “The voting for the award has already been cast, but it is unclear whether the list is official or not,” the report said.

The reported second-placed Van Dijk, meanwhile, was already in conceding tone when asked about the chances of him beating Lionel Messi for the annual football award. The 28-year-old Dutch player claimed that he just cherishes every chance, saying that “there are no losers on that evening.”

“Well, I think it doesn’t matter as you said already, we’ll see,” he said. “I’m proud of what I achieved last year with Liverpool. I’m gonna be there for a reason,” he added. “What can I say? We’ll see. There’s no loser there, there’s only a winner. I’m already very proud.”

The Ballon D’Or winner is determined through votes of different journalists from all over the world, choosing from a shortlist of the 30 best footballers of the year.