Ballon d'Or 2018: Griezmann receives Malaysia vote, no Argentine love for Messi

Malaysia was one of the 28 countries to tip Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann to win the 2018 Ballon d'Or, which ultimately went to Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric.

Former Astro Arena host and journalist Rizal Hashim named the 2018 FIFA World Cup winner as his top pick, followed by Modric, Raphael Varane, Kevin de Bruyne and Kylian Mbappe.

The Frenchman finished third in the voting, while Rizal's other picks were seventh, ninth and fourth respectively.

In Southeast Asia, Griezmann was also placed first by Indonesia, while Modric received votes from Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Singapore and Thailand went with Ronaldo and Varane as their respective top picks.

Meanwhile, although the award was widely tipped to be a competition between Modric and France's World Cup stars, there were several eyebrow-raising top picks including Thibaut Courtois (Kyrgyzstan) and Karim Benzema (Central African Republic).

There were also other surprises such as Lionel Messi, who was not in the Ballon d'Or's top three for the first time since 2006, only receiving a third-place vote from Argentine journalist Enrique Wolff.

The 2018 Ballon d'Or award was organised by the France Football magazine and voted by journalists from around the world.

How journalists in each country voted in Ballon d’Or. From France Football. #ballondor pic.twitter.com/RAGO0wYv1G

— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) December 3, 2018

An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted.