Ballon d’Or winners in full: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and every Golden Ball victor from 1956
The Ballon d'Or is widely considered the most prestigious individual award in football.
The Golden Ball trophy has honoured the best in the world for 68 years but has taken on a new level of importance in the 21st century.
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France Football's top prize became synonymous with the epic Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo rivalry that defined the 2010s.
Messi has won a record-breaking eight Golden Balls, including last year's award after lifting the World Cup with Argentina in 2022.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, has snapped up five Ballons d'Or, his last coming in 2017, with no one other than the Argentine beating him to the coveted accolade during that run since he first won it in 2008.
However, neither superstar earned a nomination in 2024, with Rodri battling with Vinicius Junior for the latest crown.
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The Ballon d'Or, which started in 1956, was originally voted for by football journalists to commemorate the best in the calendar year.
Players from countries in FIFA's top 100 were also allowed to vote from 2007, which has helped them gain value over individual awards because it's voted for by fellow professionals.
The Ballon d'Or underwent another revamp in 2022, which changed the criteria to be based on the results of the European season.
Why have Pele and Diego Maradona never won the Ballon d'Or?
The two football icons headline the list of players who have never won the Golden Ball but their snub comes with a caveat.
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Until a change in policy in 1995, the Ballon d'Or was only open to European players plying their trade in Europe.
Pele had long since hung his boots, while Maradona's best years were also behind him by then and he retired two years later.
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Ballon d'Or nominees - 2024
- Jude Bellingham - Real Madrid
- Ruben Dias - Man City
- Phil Foden - Man City
- Federico Valverde - Real Madrid
- Emiliano Martinez - Aston Villa
- Erling Haaland - Man City
- Nico Williams - Athletic Bilbao
- Granit Xhaka - Bayer Leverkusen
- Artem Dovbyk - Roma
- Toni Kroos - Real Madrid
- Vinicius Jr - Real Madrid
- Dani Olmo - Barcelona
- Florian Wirtz - Bayer Leverkusen
- Martin Odegaard - Arsenal
- Mats Hummels - free agent
- Rodri - Man City
- Harry Kane - Bayern Munich
- Declan Rice - Arsenal
- Vitinha - PSG
- Cole Palmer - Chelsea
- Dani Carvajal - Real Madrid
- Lamine Yamal - Barcelona
- Bukayo Saka - Arsenal
- Hakan Calhanoglu - Inter Milan
- William Saliba - Arsenal
- Kylian Mbappe - Real Madrid
- Lautaro Martinez - Inter Milan
- Ademola Lookman - Atalanta
- Antonio Rudiger - Real Madrid
- Alejandro Grimaldo - Bayer Leverkusen
Hosts France Football later claimed three-time World Cup winner Pele would have seven titles to his name had he been eligible.
That would have made the legendary forward the outright record holder until Messi won his seventh title in 2021.
The years the Ballon d'Or publication says Pele would have won are 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1970.
That would have eliminated the only Scottish player in history to have won the award - Manchester United icon Denis Law in 1964.
Meanwhile, Maradona received an honourary award in 1995, the year of the policy change, that was named the Golden Ballon d'Or.
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Ballon d’Or Winners list
1950s
- 1956 Stanley Matthews - England Blackpool
- 1957 Alfredo Di Stefano - Argentina/Spain Real Madrid
- 1958 Raymond Kopa - France Real Madrid
- 1959 Alfredo Di Stefano - Argentina/Spain Real Madrid
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1960s
- 1960 Luis Suárez - Spain Barcelona
- 1961 Omar Sivori - Italy Juventus
- 1962 Josef Masopust - Czechoslovakia Dukla Prague
- 1963 Lev Yashin - Soviet Union Dynamo Moscow
- 1964 Denis Law - Scotland Manchester United
- 1965 Eusébio - Portugal Benfica
- 1966 Bobby Charlton - England Manchester United
- 1967 Flórián Albert - Hungary Ferencváros
- 1968 George Best - Northern Ireland Manchester United
- 1969 Gianni Rivera - Italy Milan
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1970s
- 1970 Gerd Müller - West Germany Bayern Munich
- 1971 Johan Cruyff - Netherlands Ajax
- 1972 Franz Beckenbauer - West Germany Bayern Munich
- 1973 Johan Cruyff - Netherlands Barcelona
- 1974 Johan Cruyff - Netherlands Barcelona
- 1975 Oleg Blokhin - Soviet Union Dynamo Kyiv
- 1976 Franz Beckenbauer - West Germany Bayern Munich
- 1977 Allan Simonsen - Denmark Borussia Mönchengladbach
- 1978 Kevin Keegan - England Hamburger SV
- 1979 Kevin Keegan - England Hamburger SV
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1980s
- 1980 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge - West Germany Bayern Munich
- 1981 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge - West Germany Bayern Munich
- 1982 Paolo Rossi - Italy Juventus
- 1983 Michel Platini - France Juventus
- 1984 Michel Platini - France Juventus
- 1985 Michel Platini - France Juventus
- 1986 Igor Belanov - Soviet Union Dynamo Kyiv
- 1987 Ruud Gullit - Netherlands Milan
- 1988 Marco van Basten - Netherlands Milan
- 1989 Marco van Basten - Netherlands Inter Milan
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1990s
- 1990 Lothar Matthäus - Germany Inter Milan
- 1991 Jean-Pierre Papin - France Marselle
- 1992 Marco van Basten - Netherlands Inter Milan
- 1993 Roberto Baggio - Italy Juventus
- 1994 Hristo Stoichkov - Bulgaria Barcelona
- 1995 George Weah - Liberia Milan
- 1996 Matthias Sammer - Germany Borussia Dortmund
- 1997 Ronaldo - Brazil Inter Milan
- 1998 Zinedine Zidane - France Juventus
- 1999 Rivaldo - Brazil Barcelona
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2000s
- 2000 Luís Figo - Portugal Real Madrid
- 2001 Michael Owen - England Liverpool
- 2002 Ronaldo - Brazil Real Madrid
- 2003 Pavel Nedvěd - Czech Republic Juventus
- 2004 Andriy Shevchenko - Ukraine Milan
- 2005 Ronaldinho - Brazil Barcelona
- 2006 Fabio Cannavaro - Italy Real Madrid
- 2007 Kaká - Brazil Milan
- 2008 Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal Manchester United
- 2009 Lionel Messi - Argentina Barcelona
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2010s
- 2010 Lionel Messi - Argentina Barcelona
- 2011 Lionel Messi - Argentina Barcelona
- 2012 Lionel Messi - Argentina Barcelona
- 2013 Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal Real Madrid
- 2014 Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal Real Madrid
- 2015 Lionel Messi - Argentina Barcelona
- 2016 Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal Real Madrid
- 2017 Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal Real Madrid
- 2018 Luka Modric - Croatia Real Madrid
- 2019 Lionel Messi - Argentina Barcelona
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2020s-
- 2020 Not awarded ——
- 2021 Lionel Messi - Argentina Paris-Saint Germain
- 2022 Karim Benzema - France Real Madrid
- 2023 Lionel Messi - Argentina Inter Miami
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