Messi was Africa’s favourite as top journalist, coaches and other special voters in Africa gave him massive support to win his sixth Ballon d’Or.
Voters in Africa gave Messi 187 pts to oust Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk who got 154 pts.
It is unarguable that the 33 points vote difference from African voters for the duo saw Messi through to lifting the title over Van Dijk.
The Argentine picked up in total of 686 voting points against Van Dijk’s 679 in all confederating areas.
African voters also extended their love to Sadio Mane as he garnered 170 votes behind Messi to become Africa’s second favourite player.
However, Van Dijk picked up the most votes from the European and Asian continents, with Messi topping the charts in each of the other four Continents.
Five times winner Cristiano Ronaldo came third with 476 pts with Messi surpassing with over 200 pts in the France Football award.
With the sixth Ballon d’Or, Messi has moved ahead of age long rival Ronaldo; as he completed a stunning 2019 with the famous trophy, to go alongside the ones he collected in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015.
Below is the full voting list and points based on the confederating areas:
Africa
1 Messi 187
2 Mane 170
3 Van Dijk 154
4 Ronaldo 111
5 Salah 68
Asia
1 Van Dijk 155
2 Messi 134
3 Ronaldo 100
4 Mane 54
5 Salah 40
Europe
1 Van Dijk 231
2 Messi 194
3 Ronaldo 154
4 Mane 74
5 Salah 44
North America
1 Messi 102
2 Van Dijk 86
3 Ronaldo Mane 68
4 Mane 32
5 Allison 18
South America
1 Messi 47
2 Van Dijk 39
3 Ronaldo 34
4 Mane 10
5 Mbappe 9
Oceania
1 Messi 22
2 Van Dijk 14
3 Ronaldo 12
4 Mane 7
5 Salah 5
POINTS IN FULL
1. Lionel Messi – 686pts
2. Virgil van Dijk – 679pts
3. Cristiano Ronaldo – 476pts
4. Sadio Mane – 347pts
5. Mohamed Salah 178pts
6. Kylian Mbappe 89pts
7. Alisson – 67pts
8. Robert Lewandowski – 44pts
9. Bernardo Silva – 41pts
10. Riyad Mahrez – 33pts
11. Frenkie de Jong – 31pts
12. Raheem Sterling – 30pts
13. Eden Hazard – 25pts
14. Kevin de Bruyne – 14pts
15. Matthijs de Ligt – 13pts
16. Sergio Aguero -12pts
17. Roberto Firmino – 11pts
18. Antoine Griezmann – 9pts
19. Trent Alexander-Arnold – 8pts
20. Dusan Tadic – 5pts
20. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 5pts
22. Son Heung-min – 4pts
23. Hugo Lloris – 3pts
24. Kalidou Koulibaly – 2pts
24. Marc-Andre ter Stegen – 2pts
26. Karim Benzema – 1pt
26. Gini Wijnaldum – 1pt
28. Donny van de Beek – 0pts
28. Joao Felix – 0pts
28. Marquinhos – 0pts