Lionel Messi is the best footballer in the world, according to this global poll

The Fifa Ballon d'Or crowns the greatest football player in the world for a calendar year and is commonly regarded as the greatest individual award in world football.

While we shall have to wait for the ceremony, held on 11 January, for the official result, a global poll of 18,000 people by YouGov has shown that Lionel Messi is the popular choice.

As the below chart from Statista shows, when asked to pick from the 23-man shortlist, the Barcelona forward comes out on top for nearly 30 per cent of respondents around the world.

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo places second in the poll, conducted in 17 countries, with 22.4 per cent of the vote, followed by Neymar, with 7.4 per cent.

Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero is the only player from the Premier League to make the top ten, with 1.6 per cent of the vote.

Messi scored 58 goals for Barcelona in a treble-winning campaign, during the 2014/15 season.