In its annual dalliance with transparency, Fifa released the full breakdown of Ballon d'Or votes on Monday, shortly after Cristiano Ronaldo won the award for a third time.
As ever, the list of votes reveals some interesting patterns and questionable thought processes, not least that England manager Roy Hodgson believes Javier Mascherano to be the best player in the world.
Each national team has a coach, its captain and a member of the media to represent it. All three get a vote. Some are... interesting. Here are 12 of the most surprising discoveries from this year's vote:
1. Ronaldo and Messi didn't vote for eachother
This continues a trend dating back to 2010, when Cristiano Ronaldo was the first of the two eligible to vote in the competition. Neither has voted for the other once in the following four years.
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2. Barcelona's Messi's first pick has Real Madrid connections
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He chose Angel di Maria as the best player in the world, perhaps understandably given that they play with each other for Argentina. Andrés Iniesta and Javier Mascherano were his second and third choices.
3. Ronaldo thinks he plays with the other best three in the world
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The winner went all-Real with his selections: Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema.
4. The least popular nominee got one surprise first-place vote
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All 23 players on the shortlist got backing, but Sergio Ramos was the least popular overall with just eight votes. His sole first choice vote was from Cristiano Ronaldo.
5. One person agreed with Roy Hodgson
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Belarus coach Andrei Zygmantovitch also named Javier Mascherano as the best player in the world.
6. Hazard and Toure are no-one's favourite
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Chelsea's Eden Hazard and Manchester City's Yaya Toure were the only two nominees from the shortlist of 23 that did not register once as anyone's top pick.
7. One in five didn't vote for Ronaldo at all
Of the votes received, 114 of 554 voters did not pick Cristiano Ronaldo in their top three. So 79.6% cast a vote for Ronaldo.
8. Diego Godin might fancy a move to Chelsea
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The Atletico Madrid centre back, perennially linked with a move to England, named Chelsea's Diego Costa, Thibaut Courtois and former Chelsea winger Arjen Robben as his three picks.
9. Gareth Bale is popular in places other than Wales
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Wales captain Ashley Williams and manager Chris Coleman voted for Bale in first place. The country's media representative Paul Abbandonato put him second behind Ronaldo, but ahead of Thomas Mueller. The rest of Bale's support came from far-flung sources. The captain of Malta, the media from Vanuatu and the coach of Taiwan
10. Vincent Kompany has odd taste
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His three picks were Thibaut Courtois, Eden Hazard and Arjen Robben.
11. Ray Wilkins gets a vote!
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...on account of being manager of Jordan. He uncontroversially went for Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.
12. There were abstentions
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Most notably, we spotted that the coach and captain of Northern Ireland did not vote. Steven Davis and Michael O'Neill (above) did not appear on Fifa's list, with media rep Jackie Fullerton the country's only voice.
You can have your own fun with the full list of voting, which is available on Fifa's website. If you encounter anything surprising, post it in the comments below.
Want some more stats? Here you are:
37.66 - the percentage of total votes won by Ronaldo.
0.04 - the gap in per cent between second-placed Messi (15.76) and third-placed Neuer (15.72).
17 - The number of coaches who did not have either Ronaldo or Messi in their top three, including Hodgson.
Five - The number of coaches who did not have any of Ronaldo, Messi or Neuer in their top three.
10 - The number of goals conceded by a Brazil defence including David Luiz in their final two World Cup matches. Luiz was included in the FIFA FIFPro World XI team.
Zero - The number of trophies Barcelona and Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta, who also included in the FIFPro World XI side, won in 2014.
Three - The number of trophies won by Bayern Munich and Germany forward Thomas Muller in 2014, as well as finishing as the second top-scorer at the World Cup. Muller was not included in the FIFPro World XI side.
Seven - The number of captains to vote the world's most expensive player Gareth Bale in their top three.
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