Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi did not vote for each other for the Best FIFA Men's Player award, instead choosing three of their own club teammates.
The two stars, who voted as captains of their national teams, chose the same policy for last year's Ballon d'Or as well, with Messi again picking Luis Suarez first, Neymar second and Andres Iniesta third.
Ronaldo's ballot changed, however, as he moved Gareth Bale up from third to first, followed by Luka Modric and Sergio Ramos. A year ago, he had voted Karim Benzema first, followed by James Rodriguez.
Among other notable votes in the 2016 voting, which was conducted by the captain, coach and one media member from each national federation:
- Italy and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon received 10 first-place votes, including from Italy coach Giampiero Ventura, while Poland captain Robert Lewandowski voted for Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer for the second year running.
- France captain Hugo Lloris and coach Didier Deschamps put finalist Antoine Griezmann first, but media member Jean Resseguie opted for Ronaldo.
- The Wales coalition all joined Ronaldo in voting for Bale, as did the captain of Grenada and the coaches of India, South Korea, the Maldives, Montserrat, and the Republic of Ireland.
- Toni Kroos received five first-place votes, including those of Neuer and Germany coach Joachim Low.
- Only New Zealand captain Chris Wood voted for Kevin De Bruyne, with his international teammate Eden Hazard placing Belgium's votes for the three finalists a year after Vincent Kompany chose his Manchester City teammate.
- Sweden captain Andreas Granqvist and coach Jan Andersson were the only ones to vote Zlatan Ibrahimovic first.
- Leicester City's Jamie Vardy received four first-place votes -- from the captain and coach of Turks and Caicos, the coach of Chinese Taipei, and a media member from Vanuatu. The coach of Palestine and reporters from Algeria and Cuba preferred another Leicester player in Riyad Mahrez.
- Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez got unsurprising support from his Chile manager Juan Antonio Pizzi -- who voted for Sanchez and no one else. More surprising were the only others to give him first-place votes: the coaches of Samoa and American Samoa.
- Three players who received only one first-pace vote: Paul Pogba (from a Lesotho reporter), Sergio Aguero (a Grenada reporter) and Mesut Ozil (Kyrgyzstan coach Alexander Krestinin).
- England captain Wayne Rooney left out Messi by voting for Ronaldo, Suarez and Vardy, while coach Gareth Southgate picked Ronaldo, Messi and Leicester's N'Golo Kante. No one voted for Rooney.