"This is a clear and transparent procedure," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino just before handing the FIFA Best award to Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr.

That felt like a clear and transparent dig towards the Ballon d'Or controversy which saw Manchester City's world class midfielder Rodri named the best player in the world last month. Real Madrid were unhappy that the best player at the Euros and the Club World Cup was recognised instead of their Champions League winner Vinicius Jr.

They didn't so much pack up their toys and go home, they didn't even take their toys to the Ballon d'Or ceremony in the first place. Real were front and centre of the FIFA awards ceremony, doing their best David Brent impression. This was the real quiz.

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For Rodri and Vinicius - both brilliant players who had brilliant seasons - to have won the two main worldwide awards seems a perfectly fair outcome in a year with no standout candidate (in comparison to years where Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or, say, Karim Benzema, have been miles ahead of any other player).

What is clear and transparent about the FIFA Best voting process is that FIFA publish the votes for each player and who cast them. The award collects votes from every international team captain, manager, and a journalist from each country. And that transparent process highlights just how close Rodri and Vinicius were - and how club and country allegiances can creep into the voting.

Let's start with who voted for Rodri. He got backing from Bernardo Silva, the only current teammate to vote as he cast Portugal's vote in place of Cristiano Ronaldo. Former colleague Riyad Mahrez voted the same way - Rodri first, Vinicius second, and Erling Haaland third.

Former City striker Edin Dzeko voted for Rodri, as did England captain Harry Kane and South Korea skipper Son Heung-min. Robert Lewandowski and Ronald Koeman cast their votes for City's no.16, and so did Germany captain Joshua Kimmich. Curiously, there was no vote recorded for Belgium captain Kevin De Bruyne.

Among the captains, Vinicius was the clear winner though, earning almost double Rodri's points with five handed to a first choice, three to second, and one to third.

Perhaps that explains the preference among City's domestic rivals to pick Vinicius - as Liverpool pair Mo Salah and Virgil Van Dijk both selected Vinicius, with Van Dijk even picking Haaland as his second choice before Rodri.

Arsenal and Norway captain Martin Odegaard also opted for Vinicius, then Rodri, and then his international teammate Haaland (and Norway boss Stale Solbakken also snubbed Haaland by picking Rodri first).

Rodri edged Vinicius among coaches, including interim England boss Lee Carsley, who picked Jude Bellingham first, while Rodri was the media preference which supports the voting for the Ballon d'Or which is a media vote.

Maybe what let Rodri down here was the huge difference in fan votes - Vinicius got 1.1m while Rodri got just 260,000. There has been a huge media campaign in Spain after Vinicius' Ballon d'Or rejection and Real Madrid fans are hardly ones to take bad news well.

That messaging clearly spread to Alvaro Morata, Spain captain and teammate of Rodri during their successful Euro 2024 triumph in which Rodri was rightly named Player of the Tournament. Morata opted for another Spaniard as his top pick - Real's Dani Carvajal, before picking Rodri second and then the retired Toni Kroos third. He got the message about overlooking Rodri, but not quite the Vinicius bit.

Spain boss Luis de la Fuente also picked Carvajal first before Rodri and then Lamine Yamal. The Spanish journalist vote, cast by Jan Ignacio Galladro, CEO of sports paper Marca, mistook the vote for Real Madrid's Player of the Year, voting Carvajal, then Vinicius, and then Kroos.

Marca didn't even mention Rodri in their article on Vinicius' success, even omitting him from the list of the FIFPro World XI of which Rodri was a part.

If Rodri can't count on his captain, coach and country, what hope did he have?

Rodri sent a video message to the ceremony as he continues his rehabilitation back in Manchester. He graciously accepted second place, unlike Real Madrid at the Ballon d'Or, and won't lose sleep over some of the tactical voting revealed in the FIFA votes.