I was interested to see that in recent years a number of footballers over 30 have won the Ballon d'Or for the first time: Modric, Benzema, and now Kane. Also, Lewandowski was 32 in 2020. It really goes to show how improvements in sports science have led to players not only continuing to play at a high level well into their 30s but essentially peaking then! Obviously Ronaldo and Messi dominated the award for years, but none of those four came in second or third before they won it, so they specifically weren't blocked by Ronaldo or Messi. So I decided to look into the ages of winners, and 30+ first-time winners were much more rare before the 2000s: 2026 Harry Kane (33) 2022 Karim Benzema (34) 2020 Robert Lewandowski (32)* 2018 Luka Modric (33) 2006 Fabio Cannavaro (33) 2003 Pavel Nedved (31) 1963 Lev Yashin (32) 1962 Josef Masopust (30) 1957 Alfredo Di Stefano (31) 1956 Sir Stanley Matthews (41) - first Ballon d'Or awarded It's interesting to see that four of the first seven winners were over 30. Presumably Matthews and Di Stefano would've won in their 20s if the Ballon D'Or existed then, but I wonder if there were more older players in the professional game in that era. Maybe since pay wasn't as high as it is now, they played longer to earn a more reliable income. There have been five others who won additional Ballon d'Ors over 30 (Messi 3/8, Ronaldo 2/5, Di Stefano 2/2, Platini 1/3, Beckenbauer 1/2), but, other than Di Stefano, they had all first won in their 20s.   submitted by   /u/toasterb [link]   [comments]