FIFA Ballon d’Or Winners List And History Of All Time

The Ballon d’Or, the word derived from French, which means Golden Ball. It is the honour presented to the best male footballer in the year of that particular year. At first, Gabriel Hanot, a sports writer, proposed the idea initially. Since 1956 up to 2006, only the sports journalists used to vote the players according to their whole year’s performances. But since 2007, the national teams’ captains and coaches are also taking part in this voting. In the beginning, it was an award only for the European footballers. But in 1995, the authority expanded it for the active players in European leagues. Since 2007 all the footballers around the globe become eligible for this highly prestigious award. Here we are presenting the FIFA Ballon d’Or winners list and history of all time.

French football used to award it distinctly. But in between 2010 to 2015 the “FIFA World Player of the Year” temporarily merged with it. During that period, the award renamed as the FIFA Ballon d’Or. Nevertheless, the partnership was broken in 2016 and once again the award reverted to the Ballon d’Or.

Argentine sensation Lionel Messi and Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo are the most successful players in this prize’s history. They won the award 5 times each. They absolutely dominated the prize for an era. No one but one between these two won the award for 10 consecutive years. Their domination began in 2008 when CR7 won his first-ever Ballon d’Or while playing for the English Premier League club Man Utd. Their ascendancy continued till 2018 when Croat midfielder Luka Modric won it for his superb contribution to both Real Madrid and Croatia National Team.

Leo remains the first as well as the only player to win this award on 4 consecutive occasions. He won it 4 times on the trot between 2009 to 2012. He last won this award back in 2015. Meanwhile, Cristiano chased him down from 4-1 trailing to level the record 5-5 when the Portugal skipper won his 5th and so far the last prize in 2017. Former France international as well as former UEFA President Michel Platini also won it thrice in 1983, 1984 and 1985. Dutch legend Johann Cruyff along with his compatriot Van Basten also won the award 3 times each. Stanley Matthews was the very first man the history to grab this highly prestigious award.

# FIFA Ballon d’Or Winners List: