On Tuesday, FIFA named Vinicius Junior as the 2024 World Player of the Year at its ‘The Best’ gala. The world governing body published the details of the vote that same evening – including votes from Julian Nagelsmann.
The coaches and captains of all national teams, one specialist journalist from each country, and fans registered on “fifa.com” from around the world were allowed to vote for this year’s FIFA World Player of the Year. The votes of these four groups also had the same weight.
And: Each member of this “jury” was allowed to cast three votes in descending order – five points were awarded to the personal number 1, three points to the 2 and one point to the 3.
The exact results were published by FIFA after “The Best” gala with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Doha on Tuesday at 8 p.m. local time.
And by far the largest number of fan votes went to winner Vinicius Junior of Champions League winners Real Madrid, who, along with all invited Real guests, stayed away from the Ballon d’Or gala held at the end of October due to the victory of ManCity pro and European champion Rodri (open boycott).
The 24-year-old Brazilian collected a whopping 1,147,276 points here – and a total of 48 points (438 points from the coaches, 617 from the captains and 538 from the journalists).
Kroos and Wirtz are in the mix
Rodri, who was awarded the Ballon d’Or in Paris in October, came in second with 43 points (461 points from coaches, 373 from captains, 543 from journalists and 264,835 from fans).
Jude Bellingham (England/Real Madrid) came in third with 37 points (191/164/183/460,887).
Among the top 10 were Daniel Carvajal (4th with 31 points), Lamine Yamal (30) and last year’s surprise winner Lionel Messi (25), as well as Toni Kroos (18), who retired after Spain’s dramatic exit from the European Championships, and Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz (eight), who came in 10th.
Kroos was selected significantly more often by coaches (39 times) and captains (28 times) than by media representatives (13 times).
Nagelsmann, Kroos, Holzner: Who voted how
The voting document sent out by FIFA also listed all the individual votes of the coaches, captains and journalists – including last year’s winner and Argentina captain Messi, who voted for Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Jr. Austria national team captain David Alaba, who is about to make his Real comeback after a long injury absence, noted down “Vini”, Carvajal and Bellingham. Austria coach Ralf Rangnick voted a little differently (Rodri, Erling Haaland and Wirtz).
Bayern striker Harry Kane, on the other hand, first chose Rodri, then Bellingham and Vinicius Jr.
Germany’s national coach Julian Nagelsmann, meanwhile, chose Wirtz, Rodri and Kroos, who retired after the European Championships, for his DFB protégé. The new national team captain Joshua Kimmich thought differently: the Munich player gave Rodri the most points, followed by Kroos and Wirtz.
Benin’s current coach Gernot Rohr also had Kroos on his list – on his personal list, he came in second after “Vini” and before Lamine Yamal.
Unsurprisingly, while the voters in Europe tended to favor players like Haaland, in South America there was more support for professionals like Messi. The Spaniards (Rodri, Carvajal) were voted for globally – as was the fan-favorite winner Vinicius Junior.
FIFA The Best: The top 10 at a glance
1. Vinicius Junior (Brazil/Real Madrid): 48 points
2. Rodri (Spain/Manchester City): 43 points
3. Jude Bellingham (England/Real Madrid): 37 points
4. Daniel Carvajal (Spain/Real Madrid): 31 points
5. Lamine Yamal (Spain/FC Barcelona): 30 points
6. Lionel Messi (Argentina/Inter Miami FC): 25 points
7. Toni Kroos (Germany/Real Madrid): 18 points – now retired
8. Erling Haaland (Norway/Manchester City): 18 points
9. Kylian Mbappé (France/Real Madrid – previously Paris Saint-Germain): 14 points
10. Florian Wirtz (Germany/Bayer 04 Leverkusen): eight points