Former footballer makes shocking revelation on Ballon d’Or voting; 'My votes were changed'

Former footballer Juvenal Edjogo lambasted the Ballon d'Or award claiming his votes were changed back in the 2023 edition of the prize ceremony. Edjogo who also happens to be the former captain Equatorial Guinea national team explained how his choice of players got changed into Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the voting forms. Messi recently won the prestigious FIFA's The Best Men's Player Award accolade by beating the likes of Kylian Mbappe.

Former footballer claimed Ballon d'Or was rigged

The prestigious Ballon d'Or is awarded every year for immense contribution to the field of football. Both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the list and this time too Messi is tipped to lift the honour due to his World Cup heroics with Argentina pretty recently. But Edjogo's sensational claims has rocked the football world. The 43-year-old, who also donned jersies of clubs like Alaves and Levante, revealed he opted to vote for Andreas Iniesta and Didier Drogba but later he came to know his votes were altered.

💣 ¡¡OJO a lo que cuenta @Juve4africa!!

➡️ "No creo en este tipo de premios. En 2013 para el Balón de Oro, voté a Drogba, Iniesta y no sé quién más. Mandé mis votos, se hicieron públicos y mis votos fueron otros..."

📺 #DirectoGol pic.twitter.com/GGrt4Nyll7

— Directo Gol (@DirectoGol)

“What little I can say about this type of award is that in 2013, I voted for my three players for the Ballon d’Or, and I sent my votes, and in the end when it was made public, the list of who voted for who, my votes were different.

“It said I voted for Messi, Cristiano, and I don’t know who else, but I didn’t vote for any of them. That’s why I say, I don’t believe in absolutely anything about those awards.

"Since then, I’ve thought these awards have no value.”

Several people provided their opinions on social media.

Interesting how they put a Messi picture, and then you enter the story and it's about 2013 Ballon d'Or and the winner was Ronaldo. Not at all misleading.

— William Munny ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@0ut0fMissouri)

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an administrive error, but why on earth would they try and fix this award? And if they were trying to fix it for ronaldo then why would they also have that player vote for Messi?

— m (@macca788)

Some levante player years ago voted for drogba and iniesta and they were changed, since then he ain’t bothered. Saved you a click. Cheers guv. pic.twitter.com/V8Lz3marpc

— Addy Al Nassr (@AddyNas13)