Ballon d'Or vote: Sri Lankan journalist's bizarre selections in 2017, 2018 & 2019 | OneFootball

On Monday, the greatest individual award in football takes place – the Ballon d’Or.

One hundred journalists from the top 100 UEFA Nations have voted for who they think was the best five players during the 2021/22 season from a shortlist of 30 players.

The first pick with get six points, the second pick will get four points, the third pick will get three points, the fourth pick will get two points and the fifth pick will get one point.

It will be a shock if Karim Benzema doesn't get his hands on the prize for the very first time.

While there seems to be very little doubt regarding the eventual winner, it's always interesting to see how each of the 100 journalists votes.

France Football cut down the journalist list to 100, where previously as many as 176 nations were represented in the vote.

And perhaps Sri Lanka’s Hafiz Marikar is to blame for the reduction of journalists being allowed to vote.

That's because the Daily News journalist earned a reputation for some rather questionable votes during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 editions.

Let's take you through the votes those three years.

Marikar's votes in 2017:

Marikar first went rogue in 2017 when he completely ignored runaway winner Cristiano Ronaldo and second-place Lionel Messi. He didn't even vote for Neymar, who finished third. The best he managed was a solitary point to Kane, who ended up in 10th.

Marikar's votes in 2018:

Marikar once again ignored the clear winner - Luka Modric. Credit for him actually picking someone with an actual chance of winning in Ronaldo - although placing him 4th is baffling in itself. The four points Firmino was awarded by Marikar were the only points he picked up during the entire vote.

Marikar's votes in 2019:

Perhaps Marikar's strangest set of votes yet. His top three votes finished 19th, 20th and 18th respectively which sums up just how wayward his ranking was. As you'll probably recall, the Ballon d'Or was a straight shootout between Lionel Messi and Virgil van Dijk with just seven points separating the pair. If Marikar had selected Van Dijk in first instead of Alexander-Arnold, the Ballon d'Or would have gone to the Dutchman. Instead, he ignored the two favourites - and Ronaldo in third - and went hipster once again.