'' magazine presenting the
inaugural Ballon d'Or winner—
Stanley Matthews. The Ballon d'Or is widely regarded as the most prestigious individual award in football. Prior to
2007, it was based exclusively on voting by football journalists and was also known as the continental European Footballer of the Year award. Even after 2007, it was usually identified with and referred to by that name because of its origin as a European award, until it was merged with the
FIFA World Player of the Year award cementing its new worldwide claim.
Stanley Matthews of England was the
inaugural winner of the award, and the oldest player to ever win it—at old. Liberia's
George Weah, the only African recipient, became the first non-European to win the award in
1995, the year that rules of eligibility were changed and the Ballon d'Or was expanded to include all players of any origin, active at European clubs;
two years later,
Ronaldo of Brazil became the first South American without a European citizenship to claim the award, and he is still the youngest winner ever at old. The award became a global prize in 2007 with all professional footballers from clubs around the world being eligible; additionally, coaches and captains of national teams were also given the right to vote, before reverting to just journalists in
2016. hoisting the
1969 Ballon d'Or.
Lionel Messi holds the record for most Ballon d'Or wins with eight, while five-time winner
Cristiano Ronaldo earned the most nominations with eighteen. Messi is the only player to win the award with three clubs and also the only one to win it while playing outside Europe, as well as being the player with the most
podiums, finishing in the top-three a record fourteen times, including eleven consecutive from 2007 to 2017. Three players have won the award three times each:
Johan Cruyff,
Michel Platini and
Marco van Basten. With seven awards each, Dutch, German, and Portuguese players have won the second most Ballons d'Or, underneath Argentina and France in first with eight. Players from
West Germany (
1972,
1981) and the Netherlands (
1988) occupied the top-three spots in a single year. West German (1972) and Italian (1988–
1990) clubs achieved the same feat, including two individual years dominated by
Milan players (1988,
1989), a unique record until Spanish clubs experienced an unprecedented dominance (
2009–
2012,
2015, 2016) and
Barcelona (
2010) became the second club to occupy the top-three. The award shows a bias in favour of attacking players, and, over time, it has gone to a more exclusive set of leagues and clubs. Prior to 1995, ten leagues supplied Ballon d'Or winners, whereas only England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States have supplied winners since then. Spain's
La Liga has the most Ballon d'Or winners overall, with twenty-four wins shared between Barcelona and
Real Madrid; with twelve wins each, the two Spanish clubs also lead the overall club ranking for producing the most winners. Between 2010 and 2015 inclusive, the award was merged with a similar one, the FIFA World Player of the Year award, to create the
FIFA Ballon d'Or, which was awarded to the world's best male player before FIFA and
France Football decided not to continue the merging agreement. The recipients of the joint FIFA Ballon d'Or are considered as winners by both award organizations. In 2020,
Groupe Amaury, to which
France Football belongs, decided that no award would be given for the year due to the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on association football. It has been widely argued that the 2020 Ballon d'Or would likely have been awarded to
Robert Lewandowski.
France Football modified the rules for the Ballon d'Or in
2022. They changed the timing so that awards were given not for achievements during a calendar year, but for a football season. It was also decided that an international jury of specialized journalists, with one representative per country, from the top 100 in the latest
FIFA Men's World Ranking would determine the winner of the award; the plebiscite had previously been open to all countries since 2007.
UEFA co-organizes the Ballon d'Or gala, a role it has held since
2024, with
France Football retaining the voting system and the Ballon d'Or name.
Criteria The Ballon d'Or is awarded based on three main criteria: :1) Individual performances, decisive and impressive character; :2) Team performances and achievements; :3) Class and fair play. Nevertheless, critics have occasionally described the award as a "popularity contest", criticizing its voting process, its bias in favour of attacking players, and the idea of systematically singling out an individual in a team sport. == Winners ==