Barcelona defender Gerard Pique admits there's a lot of politicking in the Ballon d'Or race. Pique is backing teammate Lionel Messi to win the gong again.
"You can never rule Leo out. This is an election that involves the votes of many people. He's won four and people are fond of him around the world. If he wins I'll laugh, I'll laugh a lot," he said.
He declares himself a Messi fan: "If we have a good look at his year, then we can see that it's been yet another spectacular one. I'm not saying that Cristiano hasn't played well and I don't want to take away from what Ribéry has done, but Leo well, let's see who gets the most votes and then that's that. There's nothing else to it. Whoever wins will deserve it, however many media campaigns a particular newspaper will want to run."
