List Of Ballon d’Or Winners From 1956 To 2018

FIFA Ballon d’Or award is awarded to the best player in the world every year. It is the highest level of individual award in football.

The history of Ballon d’Or is not clear but it was initially set up by French publication France Football in 1956, with Sir Stanley Matthews its first winner. It was known then as ‘European Player Of The Year Award’ and the only qualified players for the award are players from Europe.

In 1995, the rules changed and any player playing for any European club could win it. In 2010 ‘Ballon d’Or award’ was merged with ‘FIFA’s player of the year award’ and became ‘FIFA Ballon d’Or’ which any footballer from any part of the world could win and recognizes only one player as the best in the world.

Fifa agreed to pay £13million to merge the two awards, with Messi and Ronaldo the big winners as the then La Liga stars dominated throughout the six-year deal.

The Ballon d’Or lost its ‘FIFA’ tag when FIFA refused to renew the deal in 2016 and it reversed back to an award voted by journalists separate as Best Fifa Football Awards was created.

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina’s Lionel Messi have won it five times each.

Past Winners of Ballon d’Or