The History Behind the Ballon d'Or

The Ballon d’Or was launched in 1956 by the French magazine France Football and is a prestigious annual international award honoring an amazing player for that year.

It first started as a recognition of European players and was expanded in 1995 to include all players in the world who play in European clubs. Finally in 2007, it was broadened to include all players worldwide who play in a league.

Stanley Matthews was the first player to win the award. He is, to this day, regarded as one of the greatest players of England. He was known to be a gentleman and an amazing dribbler and was nicknamed The Wizard of the Dribble and The Magician.

In the year 2010, the Ballon d’Or was merged with FIFA Player of the Year and it became FIFA Ballon d’Or. Ultimately, having two different entities manage one award wasn't easy and both parties ended their agreement in 2016. FIFA introduced a different award, The Best FIFA Football Awards and the Ballon d’Or continued to exist and is considered today to be one of the best Football awards in the world.

Who Votes for the Award?

The mechanism for determining the winner has evolved overtime. Today it is a panel of approximately 170 international journalists who cast their votes for their top 5 ranked players out of a predetermined list from France Football of 30 players. Journalists follow these rankings: first ranked gets 6 pts, 2nd gets 4pts, 3rd gets 3 pts, 4th gets 2 pts and 5th gets 1 pt. The player who gets the highest points is the winner!

Fun anecdote: no one has ever tied for first place, but should that ever happen the winner would be the one who gets the highest number of first place votes, and then the number of second place and the same for third place. And so you ask, what happens if they still tie? Well a new vote would then take place between the players who tied!

There are 3 main criteria for the selection. In order:

1- Individual and collective performance during that voting year - their palmares/standings

2- Talent and fair-play of the player

3- The player’s career

In reality, once the list of 30 players is established the journalists can pretty much vote for whom they choose!

Where Does it Take Place?

This year, the list of 30 players was revealed on October 8 and the votes closed on October 24. The trophy will be awarded on November 29 in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

What Does the Ballon d'Or Look Like?

The trophy was created in Paris by the French “joaillier,” a prestigious jewelry designer named Mellerio and known as Meller. Since 1956 the Ballon d’Or has only had two different designs, originally forced to alter the design when Adidas threatened to sue France Football for copying their famous 3 stripes on part of the trophy.

Interestingly, the Ballon d’Or is composed of two half spheres made of brass and then covered with fine gold. My research on the weight of the Ballon d’Or seems to position it between 10 and 12 kg. I have written to France Football to try and get clarification… let’s see if they respond! Some value it between 3,000 and 13,000 euros (so approximately $3,300 to $15,000!) but it is safe to say that its value is priceless at this stage!

And now, Finally!

In 2018, France Football finally created the Ballon d’Or Féminin (also known as Women’s Ballon d’Or) for women’s soccer and the Trophée Kopa for Le Ballon d’Or Féminin.

The prestigious award rewards the best women’s soccer player of the year and is voted by a panel of international journalists specialized in women’s soccer. Similar to men’s soccer, France Football predetermines a list of players for the panel to vote on; in this case 20 players are selected.

The Ballon d’Or Féminin was first awarded to Ada Hegerberg of Norway, superstar and striker at the Olympique Lyonnais, France, and in 2019 to Megan Rapinoe, who led the US to a world cup title , scoring 6 goals in the tournament, earning at the same time the Golden Boot a the competition’s top soccer.

The Trophée Kopa is a new award and was specifically designed for players under 21 years old. It is voted on by the recipients of the Ballon d’Or who vote on a list of 10 players predetermined by France Football. The award was won by Matthijs de Ligt in 2019.

Facts About the Ballon d'Or

• Lionel Messi leads the palmares with record 6 awards (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019) closely followed by Cristiano Ronaldo at 5 wins (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017)
  

• Interestingly, Messi and Cristiano have won the same number of awards overall, 12 awards each, Messi with 6 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze and Cristiano with 5 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze
  

• France Football elected Pelé the Football Player of the Century after consulting their former Ballon d'Or recipients
  

• George Weah was the first non-European, and first African, to win the award. He then went on to become the 25th President in Liberia in the 2017 elections and was sworn in on January 22 2018
  

• Since the award became a global prize with all professional footballers around the world, the awards have originated from players coming from Argentina, Portugal, Brazil and Croatia
  

• The Ballon d’Or was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic
  

• ¾ of the awards come from players in 6 clubs : Barcelona (Spain), Real Madrid (Spain), Juventus (Italy), Milan (Italy), Bayern Munich (Germany) and Manchester City (England)
  

• Lev Yashin, a Soviet professional footballer, is the only goalkeeper to win the award in 1963. His trademark black uniform combined with his forward thinking game skills, earned him the nicknames of Black Spider, Black Panther and Black Octopus! He was also chosen on the FIFA Dream Team of the history of world cups in 2002. He saved an amazing 151 penalty kicks and in 1998 he was voted the best goalkeeper of the 20th century by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics organization.