Robbie Keane puts Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Messi in Ballon d’Or vote

Robbie Keane voted for Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Lionel Messi in the Ballon d'Or vote with Neymar third on the Dubliner's ballot paper. Martin O'Neill gave Messi top spot but placed Eden Hazard ahead of Ronaldo. The Republic of Ireland's media vote is cast by Paul Kelly who went one, two and three for Messi, Luis Suarez and Ronaldo respectively.

Votes are cast by each national captain, manager and a single representative of the local press. A first preference carries with it five points while a second preference is worth three points and a third preference one.

Messi dominated the number one preferences, especially amongst the media voters and was a comfortable winner of the award ahead of Ronaldo; the fifth time he has lifted it. Neymar and Suarez were the other players to feature most prominently with Robert Lewandowski and Yaya Toure also enjoying some support but a handful of others managed at least one first preference including Andres Iniesta, Thomas Muller and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Chris Coleman gave his five points to Gareth Bale.

Messi and Ronaldo, the captains of Argentina and Portugal respectively, voted exclusively for their own club-mates at Barcelona and Real Madrid while a handful of voters, including the captains of Cameroon and Kyrgystan as well as a Fijian journalist found no room at all for any of the main contenders in their top three. Jackie Fullerton left Messi out completely.