Ballon d'Or: 'Chaos', Neymar's death stare at Cristiano Ronaldo and James Nesbitt's hair - the biggest talking points

The sight of Northern Irish actor James Nesbitt presenting the Ballon d’Or award alongside Kate Abdo was certainly a surprise for some, especially given the Twitter furore surrounding the incredible growth rate of his hair.

But enough about hairpieces and the like. Instead, a mix-up at the very end of the show involving both Nesbitt and Abdo left the pair looking rather embarrassed as they invited the night’s award winners onto the stage as the credits rolled out, only for none of them to join Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi on stage.

However, courtesy of another mistake in which the microphones were accidentally left on, the two presenters were quickly admonished of blame. It was revealed that an unexpected script change meant that Nesbitt had to invite the likes of Women’s World Player of the Year winner Carli Lloyd and Puskas award winner Wendell Lira up onto the stage, despite the players being completely unaware of the final act.

Afterwards, Abdo asked Nesbitt why the script had been changed without their knowledge: "Are they crazy? Why did they change the second bit of the script?"

Nesbitt responded: "I know, they tried to stop Ronaldo [getting onstage]."

After what felt like an eternity of Messi standing alone as the credits rolled, the rest of the award winners made their way onto the stage, although Nesbitt and Abdo were still left questioning what was going on.

open image in gallery

"Do we do this bit now?" said Nesbitt, with Abdo responding: "I don't know, it's chaos."

Nesbitt soon composed himself though to cash in on the opportunity to take a selfie with Messi and the Ballon d’Or trophy, as well as attempting (and failing) to recreate the Oscar selfie taken by Ellen DeGeneres at last year’s award ceremony.

open image in gallery

Alright, we can’t ignore it. What was going on with Nesbitt’s hair? The actor has previously admitted to having a hair transplant, but given he appeared on the Graham Norton show just last week sporting a much thinner style on top,

open image in gallery

Twitter was buzzing with curiosity over his new look on Monday evening, and wasted little time in making the rest of the world know of the sudden change.

But let’s not just pick on Nesbitt here. Ronaldo took a fair bit of slack on social media too after a picture showed him getting friendly with Antonella Roccuzzo – yes, Lionel Messi’s partner.

Messi almost looked to see the funny side of the occasion though, although his Barcelona team-mate Neymar was seen shooting daggers at Ronaldo as any good wingman does.

But why wouldn't Messi have been smiling, given the Barcelona superstar was picking up his record fifth Ballon d'Or trophy at the rather tender age of 28.

Messi also took the unusual decision to clarify his future during his acceptance speech, and after recent reports linked him with a £200m move to the Premier League with either Manchester City and Chelsea, he declared that he wants to commit the rest of his career to the Catalan side to snub any chance of leaving the Spanish and European champions.