Robert Lewandowski was not best pleased with his 2016 Ballon d'Or ranking

Monday's (12 December) 2016 Ballon d'Or announcement caused no shortage of consternation among those tasked with covering the event, with respected bi-weekly magazine France Football, who took back sole control of proceedings this year after ending a six-year relationship with Fifa, employing a rather novel approach to their lengthy countdown by jumping from sixth place down to first before waiting to reveal who had finished between second and fifth.

While there were few surprises at the top of the list as Cristiano Ronaldo comfortably saw off competition from long-time Barcelona rival Lionel Messi and Euro 2016 Golden Boot winner Antoine Griezmann to seal his fourth career Golden Ball after a tremendous year that included a memorable Champions League/European Championship double, the remaining rankings certainly produced one or two surprises that were hotly debated across social media.

One particular shock, along with the likes of Andres Iniesta being included as one of the 11 players that did not receive a single vote from the 173 international journalists, and Real Madrid duo Luka Modric and Toni Kroos only narrowly scraping into the top 17, was the final placing of Robert Lewandowski.

The Bayern Munich striker came home in a disappointing 16th, behind the likes of Leicester City frontman Jamie Vardy, Pepe, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Arturo Vidal and goalkeeping duo Gianluigi Buffon and Rui Patricio. Many felt that was a slight on the prolific Polish international, who netted 42 goals last season including 30 in the Bundesliga to help FC Hollywood win a fourth successive title in Pep Guardiola's third and final campaign at the helm.

Lewandowski did not appear to be particularly happy regarding that position either, with his official account replying to France Football's tweet of the lowly ranking with four laughing emojis that seemed to register his disapproval.

When congratulated on his comment by Polish sports daily Przeglad Sportowy, he simply replied: "Le cabaret".