A Brief History of FIFA Ballon d'Or

June 24, 2021 By Sourav

The FIFA Ballon d'Or, which literally stands for "Golden Ball", is an annual soccer trophy given by FIFA to the best male footballer who gave the best performance in the previous calendar year. The award is now considered as the highest individual honor of football and is based on the votes from national team coaches and captains. Sports journalists from around the world also vote in this award to choose the best performer in the previous season.

A Brief History of FIFA Ballon d'Or

The original Ballon d'Or has now become the European Footballer of the Year award. Since its inauguration, the award was an annual soccer award which was presented to the player who had been voted to give the best performance over the previous football season.

The original FIFA best player award was the brainchild of Gabriel Hanot, the chief magazine writer of France Football. Hanot first asked his media collogues to vote the best soccer player of the year in Europe way back in 1956. Stanley Matthews of Blackpool club received the first inaugural FIFA best player award.

Until the award received a few modifications 1995, the sports journalists could only vote for the European players who play at European clubs. The players who played in European football clubs but is not a European or the players who neither played for a European club nor is a European were ineligible for the original Ballon d'Or such as legendary footballers such as Pelé and Diego Maradona.

The modification in 1995 allowed non-European players to qualify for the FIFA best player award if they played for a European club.

FIFA Ballon d'Or - The Honor

AC Milan’s George Weah became the first non-European to receive the honor in the same year after the rule change. Another modification happened in 2007 for which any footballer in the world became eligible to receive the honor.

The modification of 2007 also increased the number of journalists allowed to vote. It has also become from 52 Europe-based journalists in 2006 to 96 journalists all over the world. Sports journalists gave the vote to choose their top five players for the original Ballon d'Or.

Three football players have won the original FIFA best player award three times each, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, and Marco van Basten. Michel Platini is the only footballer to receive the original FIFA best player award honor three times consecutively from 1983 to 1985.

After the modification in 1995, the board also started including non-European players. And then, Ronaldo became the first Brazilian to obtain the honor in 1997.

The best players in FIFA Ballon d'Or

Footballers from Germany and Netherlands won the original Ballon d'Or the most with seven awards each. Footballers of the Italian clubs Juventus and AC Milan won the original Ballon d'Or the most; six players have received eight awards while playing for each team.

The final recipient of the now-defunct Ballon d'Or was Lionel Messi. He received the honor as the first Argentine citizen and became the third Argentine ever to win the award.

Two of the highest honor for the soccer players, the FIFA best player award and the men's FIFA World Player of the Year award, were merged to inaugurate the final and modern FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010. Since then, the world's best male footballer received that award.

On the contrary, UEFA inaugurated the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award in 2011. They started it to carry the prestige of the old Ballon d'Or. They also mainly started it after it changed its rules. Besides, they also wanted to merge to create the modern FIFA best player award.

Ballon d'Or and its association with France Football

France Football's Ballon d'Or and the men's FIFA World Player of the Year award merged in 2010. And then, Lionel Messi became the first football player to receive the award. Messi then continued to successfully defend his highest honor for the following two years.

The original FIFA World Player of the Year award now became a women-only award. It happened after the merging of Ballon d'Or and World Male Player of the Year in 2010.

The modern FIFA Ballon d'Or has been solely dominated by two of the best modern footballer, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo. The FIFA Ballon d'Or now became an integral part of their ongoing soccer rivalry.

Cristiano Ronaldo recently became the most recent recipient of the FIFA Ballon d'Or. He also achieved it while defeating Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer to the award for the 2014 football season.

FIFA Ballon d'Or - Special Honors

Several legendary soccer players received several special honors of Ballon d'Or. It is as important as the original Ballon d'Or each year. Alfredo Di Stéfano won a special FIFA best player award under the name of Super Ballon d'Or.

He received it during the 30th anniversary of the French magazine in December 1989. The jury board nominated three of the legendary footballers for voting. And there, Di Stéfano surpassed Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini to win the Super Ballon d'Or.

Recently legendary Brazilian footballer Pelé received an honorary Ballon d'Or in 2014. FIFA decided to proceed with the special FIFA best player award for Pelé. He won three FIFA World Cups with Brazil but never received an individual award from FIFA.

During Pelé’s heydays, only European-based players were eligible to win the original and now defunct FIFA best player award.

The voting of FIFA Ballon d'Or

The original creator of the FIFA best player award, France Football, consulted their former Ballon d'Or winners. They want them to vote for the Football Player of the Century in 1999. Brazilian legend Pelé received the highest attention.

17 of the Football Player of the Century voters voted him as the greatest of all time. 30 out of the former 34 FIFA best player award winners from 1956 to 1999 cast their votes. And through that, they chose the Football Player of the Century.

Three Ballon d'Or winners, Stanley Matthews, Omar Sivori, and George Best, refused to give their votes for choosing the century’s best footballer. The other Ballon d'Or winner, Lev Yashin, had died of stomach cancer nine years earlier of the voting for Football Player of the Century.

More to add to the history of Ballon d'Or, feel free to comment below.