Virgil van Dijk on drift in Ballon D'Or betting following Best FIFA awards

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The Liverpool defender had been widely tipped to receive the award for Best Men’s Player but it instead went to Lionel Messi, who won it for a record sixth time to move ahead of long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo.

Having previously been named UEFA player of the year, Dutch international van Dijk was expected to add to his personal haul having helped his side to the Champions League title, for which Jurgen Klopp was named Best Coach.

But van Dijk was beaten by Messi, and it’s the Barcelona forward who represents his chief rival for the Ballon d’Or at 2/1, with van Dijk eased to 4/11 from a previous 1/4.

Ronaldo is co-third favourite at 20/1 alongside Alisson Becker, van Dijk’s team-mate and winner of the Best Goalkeeper at Monday’s awards show.

It wasn’t all good news for Messi, who again had to settle for second in the Puskas Award given for the best goal of the year. That instead went to Daniel Zsori, with Messi second as he was in 2015.

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