The Best FIFA Men’s Player is an association football award, said to be presented annually by the sport’s governing body. As per reports, the award was previously known as the FIFA World Player of the Year and later on merged with France Football’s Ballon d’Or in 2010 and came to be known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or in a six-year partnership. And, numerous players have been successful in presenting exceptional records, which led them successfully register as winners, and even runners-up on multiple occasions. However, Zinedine Zidane is said to lead the list in this context. He is popularly recognised as Zizou and is a French professional football manager, as well as a former player, who has played as an attacking midfielder. Apart from this, he managed to receive many individual accolades as a player.
The next player to follow the list is Ronaldo, who is a Brazilian sportsperson. Being the youngest recipient of the award, aged 20, he won the title three times. According to reports, his achievements include being recognised as FIFA World Player of the Year three times and registering for two Ballon d’Or awards to his name. The third player to follow the list is Ronaldinho, who has been a part of team Brazil. Being an excellent player, he was widely recognised for his accuracy, creativity, technical skills, dribbling ability, use of tricks, and ability to score, and create goals.
The next two players are considered among the most popular in football history. With an enormous fan following, the two players have successfully managed to showcase their best performances to the world. One of them belongs to team Portugal (Christiano Ronaldo), and the other is from team Argentina (Lionel Messi). The list below contains there to-date records, and achievements in the Best FIFA World Player of the Year Award.
| Player | Winner | Runner-up | Third Place |
| Zinedine Zidane | 3 (1998, 2000, 2003) | 1 (2006) | 2 (1997, 2002 |
| Ronaldo | 3 (1996, 1997, 2002) | 1 (1998) | 1 (2003) |
| Ronaldinho | 2 (2004, 2005) | — | 1 (2006) |
| Lionel Messi | 1 (2009) | 2 (2007, 2008) | — |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 1 (2008) | 1 (2009) | 1 (2007) |
| Luís Figo | 1 (2001) | 1 (2000) | — |
| Romário | 1 (1994) | 1 (1993) | — |
| George Weah | 1 (1995) | 1 (1996) | — |
| Roberto Baggio | 1 (1993) | — | 1 (1994) |
| Rivaldo | 1 (1999) | — | 1 (2000) |
| Lothar Matthäus | 1 (1991) | — | — |
| Marco Van Basten | 1 (1992) | — | — |
| Fabio Cannavaro | 1 (2006) | — | — |
| Kaká | 1 (2007) | — | — |
The above list mentions plenty of players, with impeccable records, and by far players from the team, Brazil is said to achieve the maximum number of FIFA World Player of the Year Awards. With some players who have already announced their retirements in the past, and a few who have been expected to continue for a few more years, the football World has managed to come a long way.
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