But for England manager Roy Hodgson, with no real 'favourites' either from the England squad or his time as a manager at club level, it seems he decided to make some rather left-field choices.

The voting for the Ballon d'Or is made by the manager and captain of each nation recognised by FIFA, as well as a journalist from that nation.

The three votes given are in order of who the voter thinks should win the award the most, basically, who they think has been the best player in the world in 2014- for Hodgson, this was Javier Mascherano.

Whilst no one on the 23 man shortlist for the award is by any stretch a bad player, hard tackling midfielder/­defender Mascherano has hardly set the world of football alight in 2014.

Whilst he picked up a runners-up medal at the World Cup, Barcelona endured a rare season without a trophy, so Hodgson couldn't even argue that he had had a successful year, especially when his other picks, Philipp Lahm and Manuel Neuer were both World Cup winners with Germany and domestic double winners with Bayern Munich.

Hodgson was not alone in his pick of the Argentine as his first choice, Belarus coach Zygmantovitch Andrei also felt that he had outshone every other player on the planet in 2014.

Whilst Ronaldo evidently didn't impress the England manager too much, he impressed more than enough voters to secure his second d'Or in a row, and his third overall.