List of Ballon d or Winners Since 1956 When It Started

Here is a complete list of Ballon d or Winners since it all started.

The Ballon d’Or and the award for the FIFA World Player of the Year have been the only individual honors of comparable significance throughout the history of football.

The French journal France Football has been the organization that bestows the Ballon d’or, which is also known as the European Footballer of the Year award, upon deserving individual players every year since 1956.

There were only European footballers included in the list of Ballon d’Or winners up until the year 1995. Because of this, the honor was frequently referred to as the European Footballer of the Year award because the competition was restricted to European players competing for European clubs.

In 1995, the regulations governing eligibility were modified to make it possible for non-European players to be eligible for the award provided that they played for a team based in Europe. The next year, 2007, opened up eligibility to any player in the world.

Following the implementation of the global Ballon d’Or arrangement in 2007, FIFA and France Football came to the conclusion that the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year award should be combined into one.

The list of players who have been awarded the Ballon d’Or can now be aspired to be on by any player, regardless of their nation or tribe.

Lionel Messi, a player with Barcelona, was awarded the first-ever FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010, the year that the trophy was presented for the first time at the FIFA World Cup, which was hosted in South Africa.

In 2016, the process of merging was finally completed. This was the point at which FIFA and the Ballon d’Or went back to awarding their individual prizes.

For the sake of historical accuracy, it should be noted that Lionel Messi, who currently ranks among the top 20 richest footballers in the world, was the recipient of the very last FIFA Ballon d’Or.

Even though the Ballon d’Or is awarded to the best attackers in the world, it is noteworthy that the Spanish Liga has produced the most winners of the award for best player in the world.

As a result, Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been the players with the most wins, with Messi winning it seven times and Ronaldo winning it five times. Messi has been the player with the most wins.

This page provides a list of all of the winners of the Ballon d’Or award.

List of Ballon d or Winners (Men Award Winners)

There you have it; list of ballon d or winners for men, since it started in in 1956.

Related: Top 10 Best football leagues in the world

List of Women’s Ballon d’Or Award Winners

List of ballon d or winners (summary)

Over the years, a good number of players have claimed the greatest award in football, Ballon d’Or as we have seen in the list of  Ballon d’or winners in this article.

In conclusion, only two players, Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo have dominated over the years, as they have been recipients of the award six times and five times respectively.

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