Yang Yang had won the Golden Ball Award for the sixth consecutive time, sparking heated discussion around the world.
Immediately after the BBC's live broadcast of the ceremony ended, the British network launched a public poll. The results showed that nearly eighty percent of fans believed Yang Yang's victory was deserved, while the rest thought Messi and Iniesta should have won.
Among them, Iniesta had the lowest share of the public vote.
This was almost identical to the voting figures later released on FIFA's official website. Yang Yang had received more than half of the total votes, Messi had slightly over ten percent, while Iniesta had the lowest share among the three candidates, with only ten percent.
So what had caused Iniesta, the overwhelming favorite before the ceremony, to receive the lowest share of the votes?
The BBC had specially recorded a program analyzing the votes for this year's FIFA Golden Ball Award. It concluded that Yang Yang and Messi had both surpassed Iniesta in the coaches' votes, the captains' votes, and the media votes.
In other words, the two superstars had crushed the most popular candidate in every respect, without the slightest suspense.
And Yang Yang, who had ultimately won the award, had crushed Messi in almost every category, which also proved the authenticity of the votes.
If the overall vote share was not authoritative enough, then among the votes from the world's ten strongest teams, Yang Yang had received five of the ten first-choice votes from the head coaches. It was a thoroughly deserved result. Messi had received only one vote, while Iniesta had not received a single first-choice vote and had obtained only two third-choice votes, because Spain's head coach Bosque had given his first and second choices to Casillas and Xavi, with Iniesta third.
Among the