Ballon d'Or
The Ballon d'Or (French pronunciation: [balɔ̃ dɔʁ] ⓘ; lit. 'Golden Ball') is an annual football award presented by French news magazine France Football since 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season.
| Ballon d'Or | |
|---|---|
Ballon d'Or trophy | |
| Location | Paris, France |
| Presented by | France Football |
| First awarded | 18 December 1956 |
| Currently held by | Lionel Messi (8th award) |
| Most awards | Lionel Messi (8 awards) |
| Most nominations | Cristiano Ronaldo (18 nominations) |
| Website | francefootball.fr |
| Related | Additional awards |
Conceived by sports writers Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran, the Ballon d'Or award was based exclusively on voting by football journalists, from 1956 to 2006. Originally, it was awarded only to players from Europe and was widely known as the European Footballer of the Year award. In 1995, the Ballon d'Or was expanded to include all players of any origin that have been active at European clubs. The award became a global prize in 2007 with all professional footballers from around the world being eligible; additionally, coaches and captains of national teams were also given the right to vote.
Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year, and was known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or. That partnership ended in 2016, and the award reverted to the Ballon d'Or, while FIFA also reverted to its own separate annual award, The Best FIFA Men's Player. The recipients of the joint FIFA Ballon d'Or are considered as winners by both award organizations. In 2022, France Football modified the rules for the Ballon d'Or. The timing was changed so that awards were given not for achievements during a calendar year, but for a football season, and it was also determined that only countries from the top 100 of the FIFA Men's World Ranking would be allowed to vote. UEFA is set to co-organize the awards gala—with France Football retaining the voting system and the Ballon d'Or name—starting from the upcoming 2024 edition.
Lionel Messi won the award a record eight times, and he is also the current holder of the Ballon d'Or, having won its most recent edition in 2023. Cristiano Ronaldo has won it five times and amassed a record eighteen nominations in his career. Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten each won the award three times, while Franz Beckenbauer, Ronaldo, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Kevin Keegan and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge have each won it twice.