The Ballon d’Or award, created by sports writers Jacques Ferran and Gabriel Hanot, recognizes the male player who, from 1956 through 2006, football journalists voted had displayed the finest performance over the preceding year. Its original name, the European Footballer of the Year award, was given to exclusively European players. All players from any background who have played for European clubs are now eligible for the Ballon d’Or, which was extended to include them in 1995.
Since 1956, the French news publication France Football has given out the Ballon d’Or, which translates to “Golden Ball” in French and is pronounced. According to a contract with FIFA, the prize was briefly combined with the World FIFA Player of the Year (established in 1991) and renamed the Ballon d’Or FIFA between 2010 and 2015. The award returned to the Ballon d’Or after the termination of that collaboration in 2016, and FIFA also returned to its independent annual award, the FIFA Best Men’s Category Player. The joint Ballon d’Or FIFA winners are regarded as champions by both organizations that present awards.
The Significance
The opportunity to vote was extended to national team captains and coaches beginning in 2007. In 2007, the reward expanded to include all professional players from all over the world. France Football changed the Ballon d’Or rules in 2022. They adjusted the scheduling so that honors were awarded for a football season rather than for accomplishments over a calendar year. Additionally, it was agreed that only the top 100 FIFA World Ranking nations would be permitted to cast ballots.
From 2010 through 2015, the world’s top male player received the Ballon d’Or FIFA, an annual honor in association football. The Ballon d’Or and the World Player FIFA of the Year award, the two most esteemed individual honors in football, were combined into one medal that was given out jointly by France Football and FIFA. The FIFA Ballon d’Or, unlike the one given by France Football, was decided upon by national squad coaches and captains, who chose the players they believed had displayed the best play over the preceding calendar year.
The Contender
As part of their continuous rivalry, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi dominated the six FIFA Ballon d’Or competitions. After taking home the first Ballon d’Or in 2010 and winning it again in 2011 and 2012, Messi, a former player for Barcelona, went on to win three straight times. The following two years saw Ronaldo, a Real Madrid player, win several honors in a row. In 2015, Messi received the FIFA Ballon d’Or, the sport’s highest honor. After that, the awarding organizations split up in 2016, when France Football brought back the Ballon d’Or in its old form and FIFA introduced the Best Player FIFA Men’s Category Award.
France Football changed the Ballon d’Or rules in 2022. They adjusted the scheduling so that honors were awarded for a football season rather than for accomplishments over a calendar year. Additionally, it was agreed that only the top 100 FIFA World Ranking nations would be permitted to cast ballots. Before this, the plebiscite had been accessible to all nations since 2007. This aligned the Ballon d’Or with the UEFA Player of the Year Award for men, which had recently been somewhat less dominated by elite leagues and by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
| Wins by player | |||
| Player | Winner | Runner-up | Third place |
| Portugal Cristiano Ronaldo[note 2] | 2 (2013, 2014) | 3 (2011, 2012, 2015) | — |
| Argentina Lionel Messi[note 1] | 4 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015) | 2 (2013, 2014) | — |
| Spain Andrés Iniesta | — | 1 (2010) | 1 (2012) |
| Spain Xavi[note 3] | — | — | 2 (2010, 2011) |
| Germany Manuel Neuer | — | — | 1 (2014) |
| Brazil Neymar | — | — | 1 (2015) |
| France Franck Ribéry | — | — | 1 (2013) |
International journalists, as well as the head trainers and captains of the national teams governed by FIFA, selected the winners of the FIFA Ballon d’Or. Each voter was given three votes, each worth three points out of a possible five, and the three and the one-point champions were ranked according to the overall amount of points in a positional voting system. Voters had a selection of 23 players to choose from, and they had to pick the three they thought had done the best over the previous year.
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