Overview
As the most prestigious individual award in football, the Ballon d'Or has an equally illustrious history. It was awarded for the first time in 1956, which makes the 2021 awards the 65th edition. Between 2010 and 2015, France Football, the French news magazine that sponsors the award, reached an agreement with FIFA where the Ballon d'Or was merged with FIFA World Player of the Year to give birth to the FIFA Ballon d'Or. The short marriage ended in 2016, and the award reverted to its former old self.
The Ballon d'Or is a creation of Gabriel Hanot, a former French footballer who later became a journalist.
Past Winners
Over the award's illustrious history, equally illustrious names have laid claim to the title. The great players include Portugal's Eusébio in 1965, England's Bobby Charlton a year later, George Best in 1968, and Netherland's Johan Cruyff in 1971 and again in 1973 and 1974, to name just a handful.
Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaká, and Andriy Shevchenko have also had their names etched on the award's roll of honour. Overall, there have been 46 players, former and present, who have won the award.
Most of the winners come from Europe, with a handful from South America, mainly Brazil, and one from Africa. George Weah, the only winner from Africa, won the award in 1995, while Lev Ivanovich Yashin, a late Soviet goalkeeper, is the only player in the position to win the award.
In the award's history, nine players have won it more than once. They include Alfredo Di Stéfano, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Kevin Keegan, and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. The others are Michel Platini, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Marco van Basten. Two members of this elite team, the consistent top goal scorers Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, have had more than their fair share of the multiple wins.
The two have bounced the award between themselves from 2008 to 2019, save for 2018 when Luca Modrić became a surprise winner. Between the two, Lionel Messi has won the title six times while the Portuguese maestro is one award less. Each of these two players has been nominated 12 times.
Before 1995
Up until 1995, the Ballon d'Or was known as the European Footballer of the Year award. The name was apt because the award only considered European players attached to clubs in Europe. The panel changed the eligibility rules to include non-European players, provided they plied their trade in European clubs.
The rules changed again in 2007 when the panel opened up the eligibility to players from all over the world. In 2018, France Football expanded the scope of the award to include a category for women. The winner of the 2018 edition of the women award, Ballon d'Or Féminin, was Megan Rapinoe of the U.S., while Ada Hegerberg, a Norwegian professional player who turns up for Olympique Lyonnais, won in 2019.
Since its inception, the award has been held religiously except in 2020 when the ravaging effects of the coronavirus disrupted events, and as such, the award ceremony was not held.