Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo omit each other from shortlists again as FIFA Best Awards voting revealed

Updated 18/01/2022 at 09:17 GMT

Robert Lewandowski took home the top men's prize at the FIFA Best Awards, pipping Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah to top spot. The Bayern Munich striker, who missed out on the Ballon d'Or, had another fantastic season and the voting breakdown for the awards has been released, with some interesting revelations.

Messi and Ronaldo

Image credit: Getty Images

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo did not include each other on their top-three shortlist to win the Best FIFA Men's Player award.

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski scooped the prize for a second straight year, beating Messi and Mohamed Salah to top spot.

The award is voted for by national team coaches and captains, as well as a journalist from each country.

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Lewandowski went for Chelsea and Italy midfielder Jorginho as his top choice, with Messi and Ronaldo as his second and third picks respectively.

But Ronaldo and Messi continued their long tradition of not voting for each other.

Argentina captain Messi went for Paris Saint-Germain team-mates Neymar and Kylian Mbappe with his first and second votes, with Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema getting his final vote.

Ronaldo, who won a special award at this year's ceremony for breaking the all-time international scoring record, voted for Lewandowski, N'Golo Kante and Jorginho.

Portugal and Manchester United forward Ronaldo has only included Messi on his shortlist in 2020, while Messi has only voted for Ronaldo in 2018 and 2019.

Liverpool forward Salah voted for Jorginho in first place ahead of Messi and Lewandowski.

England manager Gareth Southgate also went for Jorginho, who helped Italy beat England in the Euro 2020 final, while England captain Harry Kane chose Lewandowski ahead of Messi and Kante.

Portugal head coach Fernando Santos did not include Ronaldo in his top three picks, going instead for Kante, Jorginho and Lewandowski.

The overall results showed Lewandowski received more than twice as many votes as Messi.

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