The Ballon d’Or is the most valuable individual award in football, and is given annually to the best player in the world through a massive vote.
While many individual awards are considered prestigious, such as FIFA’s The Best award for the best player in the world, or the European Player of the Year award, the Ballon d’Or is a level above all others and is considered the “World Cup” of individual awards.
When is the Ballon d’Or 2024 ceremony?
The 68th edition of the Ballon d’Or ceremony for the year 2024 will be held on October 28th in one of the theaters of the French capital, Paris.
But what makes the Golden Ball the best, most valuable and most famous award in football, and who chooses the winner and the most winners? We will answer these questions in the following lines.
The Ballon d’Or has been around for over half a century.
The first Ballon d’Or award was given in the mid-1950s by the French magazine France Football to the best European player in Europe over the previous 12 months.
English football legend Stanley Matthews was the first to win the Ballon d’Or on December 18, 1956, narrowly beating Real Madrid’s Alfredo Di Stefano by 47 votes to 44.
The idea for the award came from French sports journalists Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferrand, and the name Ballon d’Or in French came from the design of the award. Only players from Europe were eligible to receive it, and it was known in sports as the “European Footballer of the Year” award.
In 1995, the group was expanded to include all players of any nationality who had competed in European leagues during the previous year, before being expanded further in 2007 to include the entire world.
Between 2010 and 2015, the award was briefly known as the “FIFA Ballon d’Or” after it was merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year award. However, by 2016, the two awards had reverted to separate categories, with France Football retaining the “Ballon d’Or” name, while FIFA’s annual individual trophy is now known as “The Best”.
Who decides the winner of the Golden Ball?
For the 50 years since the award was launched, until 2006, the winner was decided by a panel of journalists. From 2007 to 2015, coaches and captains of national football teams were also allowed to cast their votes before voting was restricted to journalists only in 2016.
Media professionals from all over the world were eligible to vote in the past, but for 2022 France Football has reduced the number to just 100 journalists. This pool is made up of one journalist from each of the top 100 countries in the FIFA World Ranking.
The organizers have also changed the criteria by which the award winner is selected, to be based on their achievements throughout the football season rather than over a calendar year, as was previously the case.
After criticism of the voting process, and accusations that the award is a “popularity contest” that favours attacking players over other positions on the pitch, changes were also made to the criteria that should be taken into account during voting.
The Committee is now asked to base its selections on the following considerations:
- Individual performance.
- Team success.
- Player behaviour and application of the fair play rule during the season.
Each journalist then uses the given considerations to rank their top 5 players from a shortlist of 30 players with points allocated for each ranking. The player who collects the most points across the voting panel of 100 journalists wins that year’s Ballon d’Or.
Messi and Ronaldo dominate the Ballon d’Or
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the Ballon d’Or award, sharing 13 trophies since 2008.
Messi holds the record for winning the Ballon d’Or 8 times, most recently in 2023 after Argentina won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He is also the only player to have won the award for 3 different clubs (Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami) and the only player to have won the award while playing outside Europe.
Ronaldo has won the Ballon d’Or 5 times and holds the record for the most nominations with 18.
Players who have won the most Ballon d’Or:
- Argentina’s Lionel Messi – 8 times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023).
- Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo – 5 times (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017).
- Frenchman Michel Platini – 3 times (1983, 1984, 1985).
- Dutchman Johan Cruyff – 3 times (1971, 1973, 1974).
- Dutchman Marco van Basten – 3 times (1988, 1989, 1992).
