The Ballon D'Or started being awarded in 1956 by the French magazine "France Football", responsible of selecting both the shortlist of candidates and the football journalists in charge of voting, which are one from each country and went from the initial few dozens just from Europe to almost 200 from all over the world in the most recent years The journalists have to vote for their personal top 3 or top 5 players of the year (more recently it even went up to 10), who then receive an assigned number of points depending on their position A very big flaw of the award is the fact that until 1995 non-European players couldn't be nominated, therefore not allowing to partecipate players of the caliber of Pelè, Maradona, Zico and others (I've made a little analysis about it in the comments) Another minor problem is that over time and depending on the cases the award basically went from annual to seasonal, until this finally became official in 2022 Now a quick review of all the podiums: 1956 Matthews Di Stefano Kopa Not a good start, Matthews won by just 3 points and while it was mostly an award to his incredible career there were still some complaints considering the excellent second placed had a better season (Di Stefano was Argentinian but was still eligible since he also had the Spanish citizenship) 1957 Di Stefano Billy Wright Duncan Edwards/Kopa (same number of points) 1958 Kopa Helmut Rahn Fontaine This was a World Cup year but after winning the third Champions League in a row and being once again the best player of the team Di Stefano should have been at minimum in the top three and probably first, but unfortunately he wasn't eligible for the shortlist since he had already won in the previous year, a rule which was then immediately scrapped. In any case it should be noted this was also the year in which a 17 years old Pelè scored 75 goals, a new world record and his personal best, of which 6 in the World Cup all between quarters, semis and final 1959 Di Stefano Kopa John Charles 1960 Suarez Puskas Seeler Suarez was great, but Puskas had probably the best season of his career and should have definitely won (47 goals in the season, won the CL while being the top scorer and with 4 goals in the final). Special mention aslo for Seeler arriving third over Di Stefano despite playing only in the league, thanks to his incredible 49 goals scored in 33 matches in the Bundesliga predecessor 1961 Sivori Suarez Johnny Haynes Sivori was Argentinian but also had the Italian citizenship which made him eligible 1962 Masopust Eusebio Schnellinger It's true that Czechoslovakia arrived in final of the World Cup and Masopust was the second best player of the tournament after Garrincha, but considering his anonymous club season in a minor league I think Eusebio could have been another good choice after winning the Champions League and being the best player of his team, even if not scoring as much as he will do in the following seasons 1963 Yashin Rivera Jimmy Greaves Lev Yashin was the first and also last goalkeeper to win the award, and when he gets called the best ever in his position it's especially thanks to his Ballon D'or. But it should be noted however that this was one of the (many) years where the world best player was actually Pelè 1964 Denis Law Suarez Amancio Law scored over 40 goals during the season which was surely impressive, but Suarez dominated the midfield all year and was the main architect of Inter's victory in Champions League and also Spain's one in the Euros, and I think he should have won 1965 Eusebio Facchetti Suarez 1966 Charlton Eusebio Beckenbauer Charlton was great and won the World Cup with England, but Eusebio was at just 1 point from him after the never repeated achievement of being the top scorer in the league, in Champions League and also at the World Cup, and I think he could have easily been first 1967 Florian Albert Charlton Jimmy Johnstone Nowadays it's a mostly forgotten name, but the Hungarian forward deserved his award without many doubts 1968 Best Charlton Džajić Deserved win, but I think Eusebio could have definitely been in the top three after scoring 50 goals in 35 matches and reaching the CL semifinals, even if Portugal failed to qualify for the Euros which at the time had only 4 teams 1969 Gianni Rivera Gigi Riva Muller 1970 Muller Bobby Moore Gigi Riva 1971 Cruyff Mazzola Best 1972 Beckenbauer Muller Netzer Also thanks to their victory of the Euros the top 3 was all German and very close for number of points, with Cruyff being close as well in fourth position after Ajax won the treble. This was also the year where Muller scored an incredible 85 goals which was the new record and lasted till 2012, despite this there was no particular controversy since Beckenbauer was simply considered the best player of the team 1973 Cruyff Zoff Muller Special mention for the third place Gerd Muller, who finished what he started in the previous year by ending the season with an incredible total of 66 goals 1974 Cruyff Beckenbauer Kazimierz Deyna 1975 Blochin Beckenbauer Cruyff Despite being a name mostly forgotten and the incredible competition (even if not in their best year), Blochin's award was deserved and also won by a large margin 1976 Beckenbauer Rensenbrink Ivo Viktor 1977 Simonsen Keegan Platini In general it was a quite weak edition, while for the winner it could have gone either way between Simonsen and Keegan 1978 Keegan Krankl Rensenbrink Definitely the weirdest case so far, Keegan wasn't remotely as good as in the previous season or also as the following one but in the end still got the award. We can't even say he had no competition considering Krankl was very close for number of points after scoring over 40 goals during the year between Rapid Vienna and Barcelona, plus 4 with Austria at the World Cup for which England didn't even qualify. In any case it was another good candidate for the weakest edition ever 1979 Keegan Rummenigge Ruud Krol 1980 Rummenigge Bernd Schuster Platini 1981 Rummenigge Breitner Bernd Schuster 1982 Rossi Giresse Boniek Paolo Rossi was disqualified for all the first part of the year but was also the best player of the World Cup won by Italy, in a year with a bit less competition for the award 1983 Platini Dalglish Simonsen 1984 Platini Tigana Elkjaer 1985 Platini Elkjær Bernd Schuster 1986 Belanov Lineker Butragueño It should be noted this was the year where Maradona would have easily won if eligible thanks to his season with Napoli and his legendary World Cup, in any case it was very controversial as the other two options would have both been better than Belanov 1987 Gullit Futre Butragueno 1988 Van Basten Gullit Rijkaard This season PSV won a treble but the top 3 was all Dutch players playing for Milan, after The Netherlands won the Euros with a very dominant performance 1989 Van Basten Baresi Rijkaard Once again all Milan players in the top three, Baresi had one of the best seasons ever for a defender but Van Basten was still considered the best player of the team and won without problems 1990 Matthaus Schillaci Brehme 1991 Papin Savićević/Matthaus/Pančev Surprisingly there were three players with the same number of points in second position, but all quite far from Papin even if with some complaints 1992 Van Basten Stoichkov Bergkamp 1993 Baggio Bergkamp Cantona 1994 Stoichkov Baggio Maldini Stoichkov did very well even if Baggio was an equally good candidate for the best player of the year (apart from Romario, not eligible), but unfortunately missing a penalty and losing the World Cup final seriously damaged his chances and partly also his reputation. There was also Maldini with one of the best season ever by a defender, but unfortunately his chances were always lower 1995 Weah Klinsmann Litmanen First year where non-Europeans players were allowed and the winner was Weah who is from Liberia, despite some minor complaints I think the award was deserved 1996 Sammer Ronaldo Shearer A controversial edition, after a very strong start Ronaldo spent the second part of the season injured at Psv, but at the Olympics with Brazil and with Barcelona after the summer transfer he had an incredible second part of the year showing things never seen before. Sammer on the other hand had a great year with Borussia Dortmund and Germany, winning the Euros as one of the best players of the tournament and then also the Ballon D'or by just 1 point 1997 Ronaldo Mijatović Zidane Probably one of the easiest vote ever, more than anything else I'm surprised Ronaldo didn't achieve the record for the win with the highest margin Summary of his season, at just 21 years old: he was dribbling, scoring and doing what he wanted against 90% of the teams he faced, ending up with 60 goals and assists with Barcelona plus almost 30 (!) with Brazil and being decisive for winning Copa del Rey, Spanish Supercup and the Uefa Cup with the first and Copa America plus Confederations Cup with the other 1998 Zidane Suker Ronaldo 1999 Rivaldo Beckham Schevchenko Some people wanted Beckham to win after probably being the best player of Manchester United which won the treble, but between Barcelona and Brazil Rivaldo had an even better individual performance so I think it was deserved 2000 Figo Zidane Schevchenko Figo had an amazing season, but at the same time many thought the winner could have been Zidane and there is a possibility the voters were influenced by his polemical behavior and the red cards got during the year which certainly didn't help his chances 2001 Owen Raul Kahn A lot of controversies, overall this was a weaker year and Owen had a good season with both Liverpool and England but Raul still had a definitely better one, and in any case I think Figo (only 6th) could have been above both after being as good as in the previous year 2002 Ronaldo Roberto Carlos Kahn Ronaldo spent the year playing sporadically after having returned from the injury that kept him sidelined for two seasons after having broke his knee twice, but then won the World Cup while being the top scorer for which he received the award. There were some complaints about winning it just for the tournament, but it's also true this year the competition wasn't as strong with Roberto Carlos being another good candidate followed by Kahn and Zidane 2003 Nedvěd Henry Maldini This case is controversial but mostly in retrospect, at the time there weren't many complaints (Nedved was nominated the best player of Serie A and the best midfielder of the Champions League, reaching the final with Juventus), but considering how the rest of their careers went and that the other two never managed to win the Ballon D'or many think that either Henry or Maldini should have won it that year as some sort of compensation 2004 Schevchenko Deco Ronaldinho Shevchenko had another fantastic season with Milan, but he wasn't clearly ahead of the competition and Deco, Henry and Ronaldinho could have all been other good candidates depending on personal preferences 2005 Ronaldinho Lampard Gerrard 2006 Cannavaro Buffon Henry Few controversies at the time, but it was a really tough year and I'm not totally convinced of the podium which I think was also influenced by the headbutt in the final and Juventus getting relegated for Calciopoli. Otherwise I would have expected Buffon, Cannavaro and maybe Zidane as the top three, followed by Henry (who unfortunately lost both the CL and WC finals) and then Ronaldinho who was probably the favourite before the World Cup 2007 Kakà C. Ronaldo Messi 2008 C. Ronaldo Messi Torres 2009 Messi C. Ronaldo Xavi 2010 Messi Iniesta Xavi All Barcelona podium and a lot of controversies even if especially in retrospect, I think a better podium would have been Messi, Xavi and Sneijder (Iniesta missed about a dozen matches due to injuries including some important ones), but it's difficult to think than one of them could have been above Messi who had the most impressive individual season since Ronaldo in 1997. At the time most of the opposed people were Inter fans but not everybody agreed, given that many instead preferred Milito's season (incredibly not even in the shortlist) 2011 Messi C. Ronaldo Xavi 2012 Messi C. Ronaldo Iniesta 2013 C. Ronaldo Messi Ribery Ribery was probably the best player of the treble-winning Bayern, but Ronaldo's individual season was still clearly superior. If anything the real controversy is that for the first time the voting period was extended by two weeks with late notice, in which Ronaldo gave his best performance of the year against Sweden 2014 C. Ronaldo Messi Neuer Neuer played an excellent season and as a goalkeeper he couldn't have done much more, but so did Ronaldo who was as good as in the previous year and also won the Champions League with Real Madrid 2015 Messi C. Ronaldo Neymar 2016 C. Ronaldo Messi Griezmann No controversy, but it would have been interesting to see Suarez's position if only he had a better reputation after all the bitings and constant diving. But in general it wasn't a great edition for strikers since Ibrahimovic arrived only 13th after the arguably best season of his career, while Higuain received 0 votes after beating the 70-years-old scoring record of Serie A with 36 goals 2017 C. Ronaldo Messi Neymar I remember not being totally convinced about Neymar arriving third after a less impressive season than the previous ones, and I would have preferred to have Buffon on the podium (11 years since the last time) who instead finished fourth 2018 Modric C. Ronaldo Griezmann Some controversies, mostly due to several great performances both in Champions League and at the World Cup. Messi should have probably been in the top three, but at the same time having out of the podium Salah or Griezmann after their respective best seasons would have been a real pity. As for the winner instead, Ronaldo's transfer to Juve definitely didn't help him but it should be reminded that Modric was named the best midfielder of the Champions League and the best player of the World Cup, later winning not only the Ballon D'or but also the Best Fifa Award and the UEFA Player of the Year all with big margin, so it was a true plebiscite 2019 Messi Van Dijk C. Ronaldo Messi had one of the best seasons of his career and rightfully won the award, but Van Dijk had an excellent season too and won the Champions League with Liverpool surprisingly managing to finish quite close for number of points 2020 The Ballon D'or was canceled in March after Covid caused some leagues to end early and postponed the Euros and Copa America. However after a while things resumed even if with some differences (no fans in the stadiums, only one leg in Champions League etc) and Bayern won an incredible sextuple with Lewandowski being clearly the best player of the team They still decided to not award it due to the difficulties of organizing the vote and the award ceremony, but given such a clear winner they could have certainly made an exception and to this day it remains a very confusing decision 2021 Messi Lewandowski Jorginho A lot of controversies, starting from Jorginho who definitely shouldn't have been third over Benzema, Mbappe or also Kanté. As for the the winner, Messi was great with Barcellona and after winning the Copa America while being the best player he became the clear favourite well ahead of Lewandowski, but some of the public opinion shifted after his disappointing debut with Psg while at the same time Lewandowski had an excellent start of the season with an average of over a goal per match. Most of this however happened in a period that doesn't count since the voting phase ends in October, and in fact those months at the start of a new season should only influence the following award 2022 Benzema Mané De Bruyne A clear winner with no doubts, but while I think De Bruyne third is fine even if it wasn't his best individual season several players could have been in the podium instead of Mané like Lewandowski, Salah or Mbappe (who had almost 80 goals and assists between Psg and France, his personal record...) 2023 Messi Haaland Mbappe Messi played well with PSG and then won the World Cup with one of the best performances ever in the competition, but the award still wasn't assured since Manchester City managed to achieve a treble. The main candidate was Haaland, the top scorer of the team with 50 goals, but it costed him a lot not being clearly considered the best player of his team over De Bruyne or Rodri, especially in the most important matches of the season 2024 Rodri Vinicius Junior Bellingham Quite surprised by the result which in fact caused a lot of controversies, Real Madrid won the Champions League and Vinicius was the best player of the competition which together with a quite weak competition (outside of his teammate Bellingham) made his victory seem almost guaranteed. Rodri on the other hand had a very good season with City but became a serious candidate only after winning the Euros with Spain and being nominated best player of the competition, which however I don't think he was over some of his teammates 2025 Dembelé Yamal Vitinha Not many doubts about the winner, for the top 3 instead I would have expected to have at least one between Raphinha and Salah to be over Vitinha or Yamal, with the latter which was definitely helped by having a stronger second part of the season contrary to them   submitted by   /u/mg10pp [link]   [comments]