The History of the Ballon d’Or Award

Few individual honors in sport carry the weight of the Ballon d’Or. Awarded annually to the player judged the best in the world, the trophy has become shorthand for greatness itself, a title that follows a player’s name for the rest of their career. But the award’s origins and evolution reveal a much more complicated story than a simple popularity contest.

Origins in 1956

The Ballon d’Or — French for “Golden Ball” — was created in 1956 by France Football magazine as a way to crown the continent’s best footballer. The very first winner was English winger Stanley Matthews, chosen by a panel of European journalists. In its early decades, the award was strictly limited to European players, and only those playing for European clubs were eligible, regardless of nationality.

This restriction meant several of the world’s greatest players from South America and elsewhere were simply ineligible during their prime years, a limitation that today looks glaringly out of step with the award’s current global prestige.

Voting in these early decades was also far less structured than it is today. A relatively small pool of journalists, mostly from major European football nations, submitted their picks by mail, and the sport’s relatively limited television coverage meant voters often relied heavily on reputation and domestic league performance rather than being able to watch every candidate play regularly across a full season.

Expanding Eligibility

The rules gradually loosened. In 1995, eligibility expanded to include any player, of any nationality, as long as they played for a European club. It wasn’t until 2007 that the award finally opened to any professional player in the world, regardless of where they played, transforming it into the truly global honor recognized today.

The FIFA Merger and Split

In 2010, France Football partnered with FIFA to merge the Ballon d’Or with FIFA’s own World Player of the Year award, creating the unified FIFA Ballon d’Or. This partnership lasted through 2015 before the two organizations parted ways, with France Football reclaiming sole ownership of the original Ballon d’Or name starting in 2016, while FIFA launched its own separate award, The Best FIFA Men’s Player.

This split occasionally leads to different players winning each respective honor in the same year, since the voting bodies and criteria aren’t identical, creating friendly debate over which award carries more historical weight.

How Voting Works

The modern Ballon d’Or is decided by a panel of journalists from around the world, each representing their home country, who rank their top choices based on individual performances, team achievements, and overall class and fair play demonstrated across the eligibility period, which generally spans a full season rather than a calendar year.

The award has expanded over time to include companion honors: the Ballon d’Or Féminin for the best female player, introduced in 2018; the Kopa Trophy for the best young player; the Yashin Trophy for the best goalkeeper; and the Gerd Müller Trophy for the top goal-scorer.

The Most Decorated Winners

The award’s modern history has been dominated by a small handful of generational talents who have won it repeatedly, redefining expectations of individual dominance and turning the annual ceremony into one of the sport’s most closely watched events, with speculation and campaigning beginning months before the winner is ever announced. This rivalry between a small number of repeat winners has also shaped how the media covers the buildup each year, with pundits dissecting statistical comparisons, trophy hauls, and even off-field marketability as part of the broader case for any given contender.

Goalkeepers, defenders, and even entire midfield generalists have historically found it harder to win the main award, since voters have often gravitated toward attacking output and highlight-reel moments over the less visible defensive contributions that shape a title-winning season. This tendency is part of why the Yashin Trophy for goalkeepers was eventually introduced as its own separate category, giving a position long overlooked in the main vote its own dedicated recognition.

Why It Still Matters

Despite periodic criticism over subjectivity, timing, and whether individual awards even belong in a team sport, the Ballon d’Or remains the standard by which greatness is measured in soccer. It has become a cultural touchstone, sparking annual debates among fans about statistics, trophies, and legacy that stretch far beyond the ninety minutes of any single match. For players, simply appearing in the final shortlist is considered a career milestone — a recognition that, for one year at least, they stood among the very best the sport has to offer.