What Is the Ballon d’Or? History, Winners & How It’s Voted

What Is the Ballon d’Or ? The Complete Guide to History, Voting, Last 5 Winners & the 2026 Race

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Every autumn, the football world holds its breath for a single evening in Paris. A theatre fills with the sport’s greatest players, coaches, and dignitaries. An ornate golden trophy sits at the centre of it all. And somewhere inside a sealed envelope is the name of the player that football’s international community of journalists has decided is the very best in the world.

That trophy is the Ballon d’Or. And understanding it — what it is, where it came from, how the voting actually works, and what it means to win — is understanding one of the most fundamental pillars of the sport itself.

What Is the Ballon d’Or?

The Ballon d’Or — literally “Golden Ball” in French — is football’s most prestigious individual award, presented annually by French sports publication France Football to the world’s best professional footballer. First awarded in 1956, it is the oldest and most recognised individual honour in the sport, predating the World Cup’s own player award by several years.

Winning the Ballon d’Or is not merely an achievement. It is a statement. A player who has won it is, in the eyes of football’s global journalistic community, the definitive best player in the world at that moment — judged across individual performances, team success, and the full weight of that season’s football calendar.

It is also, famously, the trophy at the centre of the greatest individual rivalry football has ever seen — the Messi-Ronaldo debate that ran for nearly two decades — and it continues to be the prize every elite footballer measures their career against.

A Brief History: Where It Began

The Ballon d’Or was founded in 1956 by French journalist Gabriel Hanot, who worked for France Football magazine — the same publication that still organises the award today, nearly seven decades later.

The first winner was English winger Sir Stanley Matthews, who received the inaugural trophy in 1956 at the age of 41, a testament to the belief at the time that career longevity and accumulated respect carried significant weight in the voting.

Through the late 1950s and 1960s, the award was restricted to European players only — a limitation that reflected the era’s view of where the world’s best footballers predominantly played. Di Stéfano, Puskas, and a succession of continental stars dominated the early years. The restriction was eventually relaxed in 1995 to include any player who played in a European club, and in 2007 it was extended globally to any player regardless of where they played their club football.

The award also underwent a notable structural change in 2022, when France Football shifted the eligibility window from the calendar year to the football season — judging players from August to July rather than January to December. This was a significant change that brought it into alignment with how football actually operates, rather than calendar-year metrics that had sometimes created confusing eligibility scenarios around major summer tournaments.

In 2024, UEFA became a co-organiser of the ceremony for the first time, partnering with Groupe Amaury (owner of France Football and L’Équipe) while France Football retained the voting system and the Ballon d’Or name itself.

How the Voting Works: The Exact Mechanics

The Ballon d’Or is not decided by fan votes, social media polls, or corporate interests. It is voted on by an international jury of specialised football journalists — one representative from each of the top 100 nations in the current FIFA rankings (for the men’s award) and the top 50 nations (for the women’s award).

Each juror selects ten players in descending order of preference from a pre-announced shortlist of 30 nominees.

The point allocation is:

• 1st choice: 15 points
• 2nd choice: 12 points
• 3rd choice: 10 points
• 4th choice: 8 points
• 5th choice: 7 points
• 6th choice: 5 points
• 7th choice: 4 points
• 8th choice: 3 points
• 9th choice: 2 points
• 10th choice: 1 point

The player with the highest total points wins. In the event of a tie, it is first resolved by the number of first-place votes. If the tie remains, second-place votes are counted, then third, and so on until a winner is determined.

The shortlist of 30 nominees is compiled by a group of journalists from France Football and L’Équipe, the broader French sports publication. The nominees are typically announced in August, several weeks before the ceremony itself.

Three criteria govern the voting:

1. Individual performance — decisive, impressive character across the season
2. Team performance and achievements — trophies won, stages reached in major competitions
3. Class and fair play — sportsmanship and conduct throughout the season

The combination of these three criteria is what makes the Ballon d’Or theoretically different from a pure statistics award — it rewards the player who combined personal brilliance with collective success in the most meaningful competitions of the season. In practice, however, the voting has historically been dominated by attackers at the top clubs in Europe’s major competitions.

Companion Awards at the Ceremony

The Ballon d’Or ceremony is not a single award — it is a comprehensive evening of football’s best-of distinctions, including:

• Kopa Trophy — awarded to the best player aged 21 or under during the season, named after French legend Raymond Kopa
• Yashin Trophy — awarded to the best goalkeeper, named after Soviet legend Lev Yashin
• Gerd Müller Trophy — awarded to the top scorer across club and international football, named after German legend Gerd Müller
• Johan Cruyff Trophy — the Coach of the Year award, named after Dutch legend Johan Cruyff
• Club of the Year — awarded to the best club across the covered season
• Sócrates Award — awarded for humanitarian and social contributions, named after Brazilian legend Sócrates
• Women’s Ballon d’Or — introduced in 2018, awarded to the best female footballer on an identical voting structure

The Record Books: Messi and Ronaldo’s Dominance

The Ballon d’Or’s modern era will forever be defined by two names.

Lionel Messi holds the all-time record for most Ballon d’Or wins with eight trophies: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, and 2023. His 2023 win came off the back of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup triumph — one of sport’s great individual-to-collective arcs.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the second-most decorated winner with five Ballons d’Or: 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017. His continued nominations across nearly two decades of elite performance remain an unmatched testament to sustained excellence at the highest level.

Between 2008 and 2022, Messi and Ronaldo won every single Ballon d’Or except one — the 2018 award, won by Luka Modrić — in one of sport’s most extraordinary duopolies.

The Last Five Winners: A Season-by-Season Account

2021 — Lionel Messi (Argentina / Paris Saint-Germain)

Messi’s seventh Ballon d’Or — at the time a record — was awarded following the 2020-21 season in which he led Argentina to the Copa América for the first time in 28 years, winning the Golden Boot and the tournament’s best player award. His final season at Barcelona also produced exceptional numbers before his emotional departure to PSG in August 2021. The recognition was as much for his Copa América triumph as his club football, reflecting the criteria’s explicit acknowledgement of international achievement.

2022 — Karim Benzema (France / Real Madrid)

Benzema’s solitary Ballon d’Or came in the most dominant individual season of his career. He led Real Madrid to the UEFA Champions League title and La Liga, registering 44 goals in 46 appearances across all competitions. His Champions League performances — particularly the back-to-back hat-trick-featuring knockout wins against PSG and Chelsea — were among the most stunning individual contributions in the competition’s history. At 34, it was a long-overdue recognition for a player whose prime years were partly obscured by his absence from the French national team.

2023 — Lionel Messi (Argentina / Inter Miami)

Messi’s eighth and record-breaking Ballon d’Or was awarded for the 2022-23 season — a period that included Argentina’s 2022 World Cup triumph in Qatar, where he scored seven goals and three assists, won the Golden Ball as tournament’s best player, and delivered what many consider the greatest individual World Cup performance of the modern era. That the award was given under the new season-based system — allowing the Qatar 2022 World Cup to count for the 2022-23 ballot — meant the most significant achievement of Messi’s international career was correctly factored into the recognition.

2024 — Rodri (Spain / Manchester City)

The most controversial Ballon d’Or of the modern era — not in terms of the legitimacy of its winner, but in terms of its fallout. Rodri, Manchester City’s Spanish defensive midfielder, won the 68th edition of the award after a season in which he helped City win a record-breaking fourth consecutive Premier League title and served as the central figure in Spain’s UEFA Euro 2024 triumph, being named Player of the Tournament. His points total was 1,170 — a margin of just 41 points over second-placed Vinícius Júnior (1,129 points).

Real Madrid, convinced that Vinícius deserved the award given his Champions League and La Liga triumphs, boycotted the ceremony entirely — a decision that drew widespread criticism. No Madrid player, manager, or official attended the Théâtre du Châtelet. The incident exposed a raw nerve in the debate over how the award balances individual brilliance against team-level impact.

Rodri also accepted the award on crutches, having suffered a serious ACL injury just days after the shortlist was announced.

2025 — Ousmane Dembélé (France / Paris Saint-Germain)

The 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony took place on September 22 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris — a month earlier than usual. The winner was Ousmane Dembélé, the PSG and France forward who had for years been regarded as one of football’s most frustrating talents — brilliant in flashes, constantly injured, never quite delivering consistency to match his gifts.

The 2024-25 season changed all of that definitively. Dembélé was the driving force behind PSG’s historic first-ever UEFA Champions League title — scoring in every round of the competition, a feat no player in the competition’s modern era had previously achieved. He also helped PSG win Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France, completing a domestic double alongside European glory. The complete trophy collection, combined with a season of consistent, extraordinary individual performance, gave Dembélé an overwhelming case.

Other award winners that evening: the Kopa Trophy went to Lamine Yamal (Barcelona), the Yashin Trophy to Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG), the Women’s Ballon d’Or to Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona) — her third consecutive win — and the Johan Cruyff coaching trophy to Luis Enrique (PSG). Paris Saint-Germain were named Men’s Club of the Year.

The 2026 Race: Who Are the Contenders?

The 2026 Ballon d’Or — to be awarded in autumn 2026 for the 2025-26 season — is the most open race in recent memory. With Messi and Ronaldo’s era of absolute dominance firmly in the rearview mirror, and the field now genuinely competitive among a dozen serious candidates, the question of who will claim the Golden Ball has no clear answer before the 2026 World Cup concludes.

Crucially, this is a World Cup year. The tournament is counted within the 2025-26 eligibility window, meaning whoever performs best in North America this summer will see their Ballon d’Or candidacy dramatically boosted. History strongly supports the idea that the World Cup winner’s best player walks into the autumn ceremony as the favourite.

Harry Kane entered the 2026 race as arguably the frontrunner based on club performance alone — his 61 goals in all competitions for Bayern Munich in 2025-26 is one of the greatest individual goalscoring seasons in the history of the sport. He has already scored twice at the World Cup against Croatia, is in the Golden Boot race, and if England make a deep run, his candidacy becomes extremely compelling.Harry Kane FIFA World Cup 2026: England’s Captain, Record-Breaker & Last Chance at Glory

Kylian Mbappé scored four goals in France’s opening two World Cup group stage matches — two against Senegal and two against Iraq — and became France’s all-time leading goalscorer in the process. A World Cup winner’s medal, combined with his status as one of the most recognisable players on the planet, would make him virtually impossible to overlook. He has never won the Ballon d’Or. That fact becomes more pressing with every year that passes.Kylian Mbappé Golden Boot Prediction: Can Anyone Stop Him in 2026?

Lamine Yamal — Barcelona’s teenage sensation, winner of the Kopa Trophy in both 2024 and 2025 — is widely regarded as the most exciting young player in the world. His 2025-26 season at Barcelona was exceptional, and a strong World Cup campaign for Spain could make him the youngest Ballon d’Or winner in history at just 19 years old. His hamstring injury concern entering the tournament is the only significant risk to his candidacy.Lamine Yamal FIFA World Cup 2026: Profile, Stats & Career | StrikerReport

Ousmane Dembélé, the reigning holder, is a contender again. PSG retained the Champions League title — with Dembélé once again central to their European campaign — and he remains a front-line World Cup player for France. Whether he can maintain his 2025 level across a second consecutive season will determine if he becomes the first consecutive winner since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013-14.Ousmane Dembélé Hat-Trick: The Numbers Behind the Most Clinical 32 Minutes of the Tournament

Erling Haaland enters his first-ever World Cup with Norway and has won a third Premier League Golden Boot. For a player of his raw goalscoring ability, the global stage of a World Cup — a platform he has never previously had — could be transformative for his Ballon d’Or candidacy. His entire international career has lacked the stage his club performances demand.ERLING HAALAND’S DIET, SLEEP & RECOVERY: THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE MACHINE

The 2026 Ballon d’Or will almost certainly be decided by what happens over the next five weeks in North America. It is the most genuinely open race football has seen in two decades.

Quick Reference: Ballon d’Or at a Glance

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