Alliances revealed after The Best FIFA male footballer of 2016 votes released

Cristiano Ronaldo has emerged triumphant as the winner of the first of FIFA's new "The Best" award, as voted by captains, coaches, and select members of media from around the world, beating out Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann.

After the awards ceremony was done and dusted, FIFA released the results of the ballots online, and there were a few interesting names and allegiances revealed, too.

Here's how some of the world's most well-known footballing names voted:

Fierce enemies or loyal teammates?

Rather than throwing votes at each other, the two superstar captains opted to give nods to their Real Madrid or Barcelona teammates respectively. Ronaldo opting to choose Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, and Sergio Ramos as his selections, while Messi voted for Luis Suarez, Neymar, and Andres Iniesta.

Stars showing support for Ronaldo

A number of high-profile players opted to give Ronaldo their first-place vote ahead of Messi in a year when the Portugal captain guided his country to Euro 2016 glory and helped his club secure a Champions League title, too.

Ronaldo list of allies include Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Armenia), Eden Hazard (Belgium), Edin Dzeko (Bosnia), James Rodriguez (Colombia), Luka Modric (Croatia), Simon Kjaer (Denmark), Arjen Robben (The Netherlands), Branislav Ivanovic (Serbia), Sergio Ramos (Spain), and Michael Bradley (United States).

In Messi's corner

The diminutive Argentine received his fair share of first-place votes, too, and received the respect of Dani Alves (Brazil), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Rafael Marquez (Mexico), Igor Akinfeev (Russia), and Arda Turan (Turkey).

Poor Griezmann!

Antoine Griezmann received just two first-place votes among his player peers; one came from his France captain Hugo Lloris, the other from Georgia captain Jaba Kankava.

How did the gaffers vote?

As expected, Argentina manager Edgardo Bauza gave his vote to Messi, as well as Sergio Aguero and Griezmann, while Portugal boss Fernando Santos backed Ronaldo, as well as Bale and Griezmann. But there were a few other interesting managerial decisions in the list.

For example, former Portugal and Manchester United manager Carlos Queiroz opted not to vote for Ronaldo, but rather Messi with his first overall selection, an interesting choice for the current Iran manager who has likely worked extensively with Ronaldo in the past.

China manager Marcello Lippi opted for Ronaldo followed by Griezmann, but then gave his Italian compatriot Buffon a shout with his third selection; it was a nod tripled by Italy's current gaffer Giampiero Ventura, who gave Buffon his first-place vote.

Funnily enough, perhaps disgruntled by the frivolity of it all, Chile manager Juan Antonio Pizzi voted for Alexis Sanchez with his No. 1 pick, then submitted blank votes for his second and third selections.

A few strange picks

While there was near unanimity between the three headlining stars, a few well-known players did receive votes from around the world; for example, Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City did well enough to earn a first-place vote from New Zealand's Chris Wood.

England's Wayne Rooney was one of a few players who gave Jamie Vardy a shout with his third-place vote, while Turks and Caicos captain Billy Forbes was even more impressed, giving Vardy his first-place nod.

Palestine captain Abdelatif Bahdari gave his No. 1 vote to Vardy's Leicester City teammate Riyad Mahrez.

Borussia Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was more impressed with Neymar than anyone else for 2016.

Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer decided to give his vote to Toni Kroos, Mesut Ozil, and Robert Lewandowski, with the latter giving Neuer a return vote.

Nicolas Cabrero of Puerto Rico voted for Sergio Ramos.

Finally, we can't have a discussion about the best players in the world without mentioning the self-professed greatest player, ever - Zlatan Ibrahimovic who presumably forced encouraged Sweden captain Andreas Granqvist and head coach Jan Andersson to throw first-place votes his way.