In 2014, Roy Hodgson was England's national team manager. His long and varied career had seen him coach teams across Europe, such as Switzerland and Inter Milan, as well as in the Premier League.
Spells at Fulham, Liverpool, and West Bromwich Albion directly preceded his role with the Three Lions, as he became national team coach in 2012. He would hold the position for four years, reaching the quarter finals of Euro 2012, the group stages of the 2014 World Cup, and the round of 16 at Euro 2016.
In that period, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were the dominant forces in football, winning every Ballon d'Or on offer between them. Despite this, Hodgson snubbed both men in 2014, failing to even include them in his top three.
3 Manuel Neuer
German goalkeeper
Legendary goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was his pick for third spot. In fairness, the Bayern Munich ace did actually finish third in the Ballon d'Or race that year, with Messi ahead of him in second and Ronaldo scooping the prize.
The German played a key part for his nation as they went all the way in Brazil to win the 2014 World Cup, with Neuer keeping a clean sheet against Messi's Argentina in the final. Add a Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double to his record that year, and it's not hard to see why Hodgson rated the Bayern ace so highly.
2 Philipp Lahm
German defender
Next up was another German, Philipp Lahm. One of the smartest footballers of all time, at least according to Pep Guardiola, the full-back won all the same honours as Neuer in 2014.
If you lift the World Cup as captain, Ballon d'Or shouts are likely to occur, even as a defender – just ask Fabio Cannavaro – but Lahm only ranked 6th in the actual vote. In that sense, Hodgson's opinion was a fringe view, despite the right-back having an incredible campaign.
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1 Javier Mascherano
Argentine midfielder
As Jamie Carragher put it, Hodgson was well and truly 'going for a clean sheet' with his three picks, selecting another defensive-minded player for his number one pick in the 2014 Ballon d'Or rankings. As two former Liverpool men, many may assume bias coming into play here, but Javier Mascherano played just once under the Englishman before swapping Anfield for Barcelona in 2011.
Instead, Hodgson would have weighed his vote on the Argentine's actions at the World Cup. While Messi naturally got most of the plaudits for his nation's run to the final, Mascherano was Herculean in midfield and was vital to the team's success.
Some stats from Sky Sports show just how good he was at the World Cup, as he made the second most number of tackles (22), the joint-third most blocks (six), recovered the ball for his side on 49 occasions (the fourth most), and only two players covered more ground than his 82km. He was also third in the passing rankings, making 626 passes with an 86% completion rate – only Toni Kroos and Lahm had better numbers.
After the semi-final, Diego Maradona even remarked, “'Masche' was exceptional. When I said it was 'Masche' and 10 more, they laughed. Today, they could not laugh. The example on the pitch is Mascherano. Everyone follows his rhythm."
Hodgson clearly had similar thoughts going through his mind as he voted Mascherano as his number one pick for the 2014 Ballon d'Or.