Ballon d'Eurosport: Lionel Messi crowned the world's greatest player

This summer we are once again counted down our list of the 50 best footballers in the world.

We canvassed our global offices in a special poll and tallied up all the votes to determine who would be named the winner of the Ballon d’Eurosport for 2015.

And on Friday, the victorious player was announced.

Lionel Messi was crowned the world's greatest player in our summer poll as he beat Cristiano Ronaldo into second place having led Barcelona to the treble this season. Ronaldo was the only non-Barcelona player to make the top four with Neymar and Luis Suarez - the other members of the MSN - taking pride of place. Bayern Munich were well represented with three players in the top 10 although they all trailed in behind Eden Hazard of Chelsea, who came fifth after winning the Premier League.

Ahead of Friday's grand reveal, we looked at the 12 superstars who obtained votes from our European offices but did not do enough to earn a place in the top 50.

The world's most expensive ever footballer is revealed as only the 20th best player in the world in our survey as Gareth Bale enters the equation. He's a full seven spots below Wolfsburg's Kevin de Bruyne, who had a tremendous season in Germany. Two goalkeepers also enter the standings with David De Gea and Gianluigi Buffon both honoured. Are there any more to come?

Week three saw three players from Real Madrid join the list, although in a few weeks perhaps Sergio Ramos, our No. 21, will be wearing a Manchester United shirt instead. His possible Old Trafford colleague Wayne Rooney made the cut at 29, although this placed him below two of Chelsea's title-winners: Cesc Fabregas and Branislav Ivanovic.

On Saturday we released the second batch of players with one particularly surprising feature: Tottenham’s Harry Kane beat Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema into 38th place. It’s a huge vote of confidence by our European offices in a player who has had one good season at the top level, with Real Madrid’s consistent striker Benzema being edged out. Manchester United new boy Memphis Depay also makes the list for his exploits for PSV Eindhoven last season.

The big surprise in week one was arguably the inclusion of Robin van Persie who, along with his Old Trafford team-mate Angel Di Maria, has had a poor season at Manchester United. But one big faller was Franck Ribery, a man who came so close to winning the Ballon d’Or in 2014 but has had a wretched time with injuries, explaining his fall from grace.

50. Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid)

49. Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich)

48. Fernando Muslera (Galatasaray)

47. Xavi (Al Sadd)

46. Sergio Busquets (Barcelona)

45. Robin van Persie (Manchester United)

44. Angel Di Maria (Manchester United)

43. Grzegorz Krychowiak (Sevilla)

42. Javier Mascherano (Barcelona)

41. Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid)

40. Marco Verratti (PSG)

39. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)

38. Harry Kane (Tottenham)

37. John Terry (Chelsea)

36. Memphis Depay (Manchester United)

35. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)

34. Gerard Pique (Barcelona)

33. Xabi Alonso (Bayern Munich)

32. Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea)

31. Thiago Silva (PSG)

30. Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus)

29. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

28. Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea)

27. Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea)

26. Toni Kroos (Real Madrid)

25. Luka Modric (Real Madrid)

24. Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon)

23. Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund)

22. Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)

21. Andrea Pirlo (Juventus)

20. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid)

19. Diego Costa (Chelsea)

18. David De Gea (Manchester United)

17. Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)

16. James Rodriguez (Real Madrid)

15. Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)

14. Paul Pogba (Juventus)

13. Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg)

12. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG)

11. Andres Iniesta (Barcelona)

10. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)

9. Carlos Tevez (Juventus)

8. Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich)

7. Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich)

6. Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich)

5. Eden Hazard (Chelsea)

4. Luis Suarez (Barcelona)

3. Neymar (Barcelona)

2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)

1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona)