List of footballers who have won the Ballon d’Or the most times

The prestigious magazine France Football awards each year an award called Golden Ball to the footballer who has stood out the most that course. The award was established in 1956 (in the case of the male category) and the Argentine Lionel Messi It is the one that has received it the most times (7).

Until 1995, to be eligible for the award, footballers had to meet two requirements: on the one hand, have the nationality of a European country; on the other, playing in a European professional football competition. Skin O Maradona, for example, they did not meet the first of the conditions, so they never received the award. However, that year (1995), the organization awarded the Argentine star the Honorary Golden Ball and, at the same time, awarded the Liberian George Weah, who at that time was a member of AC Milan.

As of 2012, the possibility of winning the Golden Ball it was extended to players from all over the world, regardless of whether they belonged to a European team or not. A criterion that remains in force to date

As for the female category of the award, it was not until 2018 when it was officially launched.

In 2020 the organization decided not to deliver the award due to the coronavirus pandemic.

AWARDED IN THE MALE CATEGORY:

7 Ballon d’Or:

Lionel Messi (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021)

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5 Ballon d’Or:

Cristiano Ronaldo (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017)

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3 Ballon d’Or:

Michel platini (1983, 1984 and 1985)

Johan Cruyff (1971, 1973 and 1974)

Marco van Basten (1988, 1989 and 1992)

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2 Ballon d’Or:

Franz Beckenbauer (1972 and 1976)

Ronaldo Nazario (1997 and 2002)

Alfredo Di Stefano (1957 and 1959)

Kevin Keegan (1978 and 1979)

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1980 and 1981)

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1 Ballon d’Or:

Luka Modric (2018)

kaka (2007)

Fabio Cannavaro (2006)

Ronaldinho (2005)

Andriy Shevchenko (2004)

Pavel Nedved (2003)

Michael Owen (2001)

Luis Figo (2000)

Rivaldo (1999)

Zinedine Zidane (1998)

Mathias Sammer (1996)

George Weah (1995)

Hristo Stoichkov (1994)

Roberto Baggio (1993)

Jean-Pierre Papin (1991)

Lothar Matthaüs (1990)

Ruud Gullit (1987)

Igor Belanov (1986)

Paolo Rossi (1982)

Allan Simonsen (1977)

Oleg Blojin (1975)

Gerd Müller (1970)

Gianni Rivera (1969)

George Best (1968)

Florian Albert (1967)

Bobby Charlton (1966)

Eusebio da Silva (1965)

Denis Law (1964)

Lev Yashin (1963)

Josef Masopust (1962)

Omar Sivori (1961)

Luis Suarez (1960)

Raymond Kopa (1958)

Stanley Matthews (1956)

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Since 2018, the organization decided to also establish the female category of the award, so that up to now only three Ballons d’Or have been awarded in the aforementioned category:

Alexia putellas (2021)

Megan Rapinoe (2019)

Ada Hederberg (2018)