Virgil van Dijk was extremely close to beating Lionel Messi in the vote as the world's best footballer.

FC Barcelona-star Lionel Messi won on Monday evening the Ballon d'or for the sixth time in fodboldkarrieren.

But it was an extremely close decision, where a few votes decided it for Lionel messi's advantage.

The Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk was thus only seven points from Lionel Messi, who won the award with 686 points.

Virgil van Dijk got 679 points, while Cristiano Ronaldo and in third place was noted for 476 points.

It was the journalists who made the votes in France Footballs competition, and they could vote on the five players.

the Number one of every journalist was awarded six points, second got four points, number three got three points, number four was two points, while number five got a single point.

The final vote ended up with the following pointfordeling sahabet to the top-5 in the Ballon d'or 2019:

Lionel Messi, 686 points.

Virgil van Dijk, 679 points.

Cristiano Ronaldo, 476 points.

Sadio Mané, 347 points.

Mohamed Salah, 176 points.

Denmark was the Tipsbladets editor-in-chief, Troels Bager Thøgersen, who voted. He delivered the votes in the following way:

1. Lionel Messi, the FC Barcelona and Argentina (6 points).

2. Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool FC and the Netherlands (4 points).

3. Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus and Portugal (3 points).

4. Raheem Sterling, Manchester City and England (2 points).

5. Saido Mané, Liverpool and Senegal (1 point).

/ritzau/