Robert Lewandowski has rejected reports that he apologised for not voting for Bayern Munich teammate Manuel Neuer as the Ballon d'Or World Player of the Year.
For the second year running, a Bayern player finished in third place in the vote for the annual FIFA award, with sections of the German media questioning the voting process as Cristiano Ronaldo won while Lionel Messi finished second.
For the 2013 award, Franck Ribery finished behind Messi and winner Ronaldo, while this time around Germany goalkeeper Neuer ended up as the third-best player in the world at the Gala ceremony in Zurich on Monday.
The Bayern keeper received 15.72 percent of the votes, which were cast between Oct. 28 and Nov. 21 last year.
Poland captain Lewandowski allegedly told kicker on Tuesday: "It was a mistake to vote for Ronaldo. Today, I would clearly vote Neuer, but I voted back someday back in August and would vote differently today."
Later that day, Bayern sporting director Matthias Sammer said that he accepted Lewandowski's apology.
"That was thoughtless, but he voted in passing back in August. We discussed it and he corrected it in public that he believes Neuer is No. 1 and he was a bit thoughtless and so it's OK," he was quoted as saying by Sport 1.
However, Lewandowski's agent Maik Barthel later seemed to suggest on Twitter that his client never said anything like that, while the Bayern attacker also made it clear that his vote for Ronaldo was right.
"I am aware of whom I voted for, and I don't want to apologise for it," Lewandowski tweeted in Polish.
Jestem świadomy na kogo głosowałem i nie zamierzam za to przepraszać! Kopiuj, wklej i tak się rodzi plotka.
- Robert Lewandowski (@lewy_official) January 13, 2015
German newspaper Die Welt commented: "Sammer, with all the loyalty, has obviously forgotten that we live in a free Europe. You don't sell your soul with a signature."
Contrary to Sammer's comments, Neuer was relaxed when hearing about Lewandowski's vote. "You can see that [it was] a fair vote," the shot-stopper told reporters at Bayern's winter training camp in Qatar.