Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi
Ronaldo and Messi at The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony on Monday, October 23BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

Real Madrid hero Cristiano Ronaldo won the Best FIFA Men's Player Award for the second year running Monday (October 23), piping the likes of Lionel Messi and Neymar, who were also among the three finalists.

The result though would have caused Sunil Chhetri a little bit of disappointment as the Portugal international was not the Indian captain's first-choice for the prestigious award. Notably, 33-year-old was also part of the voting process as international captains, coaches, along with fans and a select group of media had the right to nominate players.

The national team skippers were allowed to choose three players for the Best Player category. The first-choice received five points, the second three points and the third one point, according to FIFA's official website.

Chhetri's first choice, surprisingly, was Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos, who was part of the initial 24 nominees for the annual award. Ronaldo was the Bengaluru FC star's second choice, while Barcelona legend Messi was his third.

Ramos himself picked Ronaldo as his first choice before voting for Messi and his Real Madrid teammate Luka Modric.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo and Messi did not vote for each other. While the Portugal captain picked Modric as his first choice, the Argentina captain helped his Barcelona teammate Luis Suarez win five points.

Here's a look at how popular international captains voted for the Best FIFA Player of the Year Awards

Captain First choice Second choice Third choice
Sunil Chhetri (India) Sergio Ramos Cristiano Ronaldo Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi (Argentina) Luis Suarez Andres Iniesta Neymar
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) Luka Modric Sergio Ramos Marcelo
Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Armenia) Cristiano Ronaldo Gianluigi Buffon Neymar
Eden Hazard (Belgium) N'Golo Kante Cristiano Ronaldo Luka Modric
Dani Alves (Brazil) Neymar Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo
Luka Modric (Croatia) Cristiano Ronaldo Lionel Messi Toni Kroos
Hugo Lloris (France) Cristiano Ronaldo Sergio Ramos Harry Kane
Manuel Neuer (Germany) Toni Kroos Robert Lewandowski Arturo Vidal
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) Cristiano Ronaldo Paulo Dybala Luka Modric
Robert Lewandowski (Poland) Manuel Neuer Arturo Vidal Cristiano Ronaldo

Check out the complete list here.