Martin O’Neill honours the classiest man in football with his world player of the year vote

The FIFA player of the year award was announced on Monday evening.

Cristiano Ronaldo won the award, Antoine Griezmann came second and Lionel Messi received the third highest number of votes. The coach and captain of each national team, as well as a media representative, get a vote in the award. Most opted for eventual winner Ronaldo in recognition of the success he experienced in 2016. The Real Madrid forward scored the winning penalty in the Champions League final and captained Portugal to Euro 2016 glory. However, that wasn't enough to earn a vote from Martin O'Neill. The Republic of Ireland coach seemingly considers Gareth Bale to be the best player in the world. The Wales forward received O'Neill's number one vote. N'Golo Kante, who helped propel Leicester City to the Premier League title before joining Chelsea, received O'Neill's third place vote. In second place, the Ireland manager opted for possibly the classiest man in football - Gianluigi Buffon. The 38-year-old goalkeeper is still going strong for Juventus and racked up his 167th international cap for Italy last year. O'Neill's vote might have also been influenced by this moment of great sportsmanship from Buffon. The 'keeper immediately congratulated O'Neill and Roy Keane following Ireland's 1-0 victory over the Azzurri at Euro 2016. He also had some kind words for the Germany players after Italy exited the competition on penalties in the quarter-finals. Ireland captain Seamus Coleman's choices were more straight forward. The Everton full-back opted for Ronaldo in first place, Messi in second and Luis Suarez in third. England captain Wayne Rooney opted for Ronaldo, Suarez and his international teammate Jamie Vardy. You can see the full voting breakdown here.