Portugal 'captain' Pepe snubbed Ronaldo, Messi for Mbappe in vote

There has been confusion and controversies surrounding Portugal’s vote for The Best FIFA Football Awards 2022 male player of the year held in Paris on Monday 27th.

Lionel Messi was crowned the best player of the world for the second time since 2019 but for the consecutive time, his over decade-long rival Cristiano Ronaldo did not make it to the podium.

And, that’s not all! The Portuguese star who first captained the team on February 6th, 2007 did not take part in the voting process that involved all national team captains and coaches, media and fans.

In his place, his former Real Madrid teammate Kepler Ferreira commonly knowns as Pepe took the responsibilities.

Pepe, for mysterious reasons, shunned voting for Ronaldo now playing at Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia for Messi’s PSG teammate Kylian Mbappé and his former teammates Luka Modrić Karim Benzema.