All Ballon d’Or Winners

The Ballon d’Or is the greatest individual trophy for a footballer, and everyone dreams of it. This is a trophy that is awarded by the French magazine France Football to the player who has been distinguished throughout the year in his team and has had an excellent performance
The first Golden Ball was awarded in 1956 and was won by the Englishman Stanley Matthews who was playing for Blackpool at the time. The first footballer to win three consecutive Golden Balls was the Frenchman Michel Platini in 1983,1984,1985 playing for Juventus. Before him, the Dutchman Johan Cruyff had also managed to win three Golden Balls in 1971 with Ajax and in 1973, 1974 with Barcelona. Another Dutchman to succeed in this feat was also Marco van Basten with Arrigo Sachi’s Grande Milan in 1988, 1989 and 1992.
Until 1994 only footballers of European origin could win the trophy but in the following season in 1995 the trophy was won by a non-European player, the Liberian George Weah who is also the only African player to win the Golden Ball. The first Ballon d’Or by a South American was won in 1997 by Ronaldo the Phenomenon with Inter.
The Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who has won five Ballon d’Ors in 2008 playing for Manchester United and in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 with Real Madrid, and the Argentine Lionel Messi are the ones who dominate the roll of honor for this trophy. Messi who holds the absolute record with eight Ballon d’Ors, four of which he won consecutively from 2009-2012, something no one else has been able to do, and the others he won in 2015, 2019, 2021 and the last one in 2023. Thus putting an end to an extraordinary football match between him and the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo.