Messi, Zidane, Ronaldinho: Who did previous Ballon d'Or winners vote for in 2022 Kopa Trophy? | OneFootball

The votes for the 2022 Kopa Trophy, organised by France Football, have been leaked with Gavi lifting the award.

The Barcelona wonderkid beat the likes of Jude Bellingham, Eduardo Camavinga and Jamal Musiala to claim the prize which crowns the best under-21 player playing in Europe.

Gavi follows in the footsteps of teammate Pedri, Matthijs de Ligt and Kylian Mbappe to claim the award.

One interesting aspect of the award is that it's voted for by former Ballon d'Or winners.

And now, the votes have been leaked in Spanish media. SportLionel Messi and Ronaldinho which led to Gavi's victory.

The votes can be seen below:

Ballon d'Or winners vote for 2022 Kopa Trophy

Luis Suarez (1960 Ballon d'Or winner)

Gianni Rivera (1969 Ballon d'Or winner)

Franz Beckenbauer (1972 and 1976 Ballon d'Or winner)

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1980 and 1981 Ballon d'Or winner)

Igor Belanov (1986 Ballon d'Or winner)

Ruud Gullit (1987 Ballon d'Or winner)

Marco van Basten (1988, 1989 and 1992 Ballon d'Or winner)

Lothar Matthaus (1990 Ballon d'Or winner)

Jean-Pierre Papin (1991 Ballon d'Or winner)

Roberto Baggio (1993 Ballon d'Or winner)

Hristo Stoitchkov (1994 Ballon d'Or winner)

Matthias Sammer (1996 Ballon d'Or winner)

Zinedine Zidane (1998 Ballon d'Or winner)

Rivaldo (1999 Ballon d'Or winner)

Luis Figo (2000 Ballon d'Or winner)

Michael Owen (2001 Ballon d'Or winner)

Pavel Nedved (2003 Ballon d'Or winner)

Andrei Shevchenko (2004 Ballon d'Or winner)

Ronaldinho (2005 Ballon d'Or winner)

Fabio Cannavaro (2006 Ballon d'Or winner)

Kaka (2007 Ballon d'Or winner)

Luka Modric (2018 Ballon d'Or winner)

Lionel Messi (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021 Ballon d'Or winner)

Conclusions

Where do we start with those votes?

Well, it's worth pointing out Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo Nazario, George Weah, Michel Platini, Kevin Keegan, Allan Rodenkam Simonsen, Oleg Blokhin, Bobby Charlton and Dennis Law didn't submit votes.

We just want to touch on Ronaldinho's picks, who went pretty rogue. He voted Eduardo Camavinga in first - not an outrageous shout. But then we opted for Ryan Gravenberch and Bukayo Saka in second and third. He totally ignored winner Gavi, Jamal Musiala and Jude Bellingham.

Another interesting tidbit is Zidane voting for Bellingham over compatriot and Real Madrid midfielder Camavinga. In a vote that's often swayed by bias, you have to respect Zidane's honesty.

Of course, we're all interested in Messi's selections and it's probably no surprise to see him opt for Barcelona's Gavi. He did win the award, to be fair.

The final Kopa Trophy rankings

10. Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen & Germany)

9. Karim Adeyemi (Borussia Dortmund & Germany)

8. Bukayo Saka (Arsenal & England)

6. Ryan Gravenberch (Ajax & Netherlands)

= Josko Gvardiol (RB Leipzig & Croatia)

5. Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain & Portugal)

4. Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund & England)

3. Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich & Germany)

2. Eduardo Camavinga (Real Madrid & France)

1. Gavi (Barcelona & Spain)

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