Fifa Ballon D'or

Awarded jointly by FIFA and France Football, the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Year award and the Ballon d'Or, the two most prestigious individual honours in world football. Unlike the Ballon d'Or awarded by France Football, the FIFA Ballon d'Or, was not awarded based on votes from international journalists, but votes from national team coaches and captains, who selected the players they deemed to have performed the best in the previous calendar year.

FIFA Ballon d'Or

FIFA Ballon d'Or awarded to Messi in 2010
Sport	Association football
Awarded for	Best performing player of the calendar year
History
First award	2010
Editions	6
Final award	2015
Most wins	Lionel Messi (4 awards)

The six editions of the FIFA Ballon d'Or were dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as part of their ongoing rivalry.

Messi, who played for Barcelona, won the inaugural Ballon d'Or in 2010 and went on to win three in a row, after his wins in 2011 and 2012. Ronaldo, who played for Real Madrid, won successive awards in the next two years. The final FIFA Ballon d'Or was presented to Messi in 2015. Its awarding bodies subsequently ended their partnership; for 2016, France Football reintroduced the previous format of the Ballon d'Or, while FIFA created The Best FIFA Men's Player award.

 

Historically, the leading individual awards in association football were the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year award. The original Ballon d'Or, also known as the European Footballer of the Year award, had been awarded by the French publication France Football since 1956. The FIFA World Player of the Year award was presented by FIFA, the sport's governing body, from 1991.

From 2005, the winners of the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award were identical each year. Following the introduction of a global Ballon d'Or format in 2007, France Football and FIFA opted to merge the two awards. The creation of the FIFA Ballon d'Or was subsequently announced during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The inaugural award was presented that same year to the Argentine Lionel Messi.

After a six-year partnership, France Football and FIFA terminated the joint award. Lionel Messi had received the final FIFA Ballon d'Or. For historical purposes, both awarding bodies regard the six editions of the FIFA Ballon d'Or as a continuation of their respective awards.

Voting

The winners of the FIFA Ballon d'Or were chosen by international journalists and the coaches and captains of the national teams under FIFA's jurisdiction. In a system based on positional voting, each voter was allotted three votes, worth five points, three points and one point, and the three finalists were ordered based on total number of points. Voters were provided with a shortlist of 23 players from which they could select the three players they deemed to have performed the best in the previous calendar year.

Year	Rank	Player	Team	Votes
2010	1st	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	22.65%
	2nd	Andrés Iniesta	Barcelona	17.36%
	3rd	Xavi	Barcelona	16.48%
2011	1st	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	47.88%
	2nd	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	21.60%
	3rd	Xavi	Barcelona	9.23%
2012	1st	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	41.60%
	2nd	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	23.68%
	3rd	Andrés Iniesta	Barcelona	10.91%
2013	1st	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	27.99%
	2nd	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	24.72%
	3rd	Franck Ribéry	Bayern Munich	23.36%
2014	1st	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	37.66%
	2nd	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	15.76%
	3rd	Manuel Neuer	Bayern Munich	15.72%
2015	1st	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	41.33%
	2nd	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	27.76%
	3rd	Neymar	Barcelona	7.86%

Wins by player

#	Player	Winner	Runner-up	Third place
1	Lionel Messi	4 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015)	2 (2013, 2014)	—
2	Cristiano Ronaldo	2 (2013, 2014)	3 (2011, 2012, 2015)	—
3	Andrés Iniesta	—	1 (2010)	1 (2012)
4	Xavi	—	—	2 (2010, 2011)
5	Franck Ribéry	—	—	1 (2013)
	Manuel Neuer	—	—	1 (2014)
	Neymar	—	—	1 (2015)

Wins by country

#	Country	Winner	Runner-up	Third place
1	Argentina	4 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015)	2 (2013, 2014)	—
2	Portugal	2 (2013, 2014)	3 (2011, 2012, 2015)	—
3	Spain	—	1 (2010)	3 (2010, 2011, 2012)
4	France	—	—	1 (2013)
	Germany	—	—	1 (2014)
	Brazil	—	—	1 (2015)

Wins by club

#	Club	Winner	Runner-up	Third place
1	Barcelona	4 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015)	3 (2010, 2013, 2014)	4 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015)
2	Real Madrid	2 (2013, 2014)	3 (2011, 2012, 2015)	—
3	Bayern Munich	—	—	2 (2013, 2014)

In 2013, Brazilian forward Pelé was given an honorary Ballon d'Or, having won three FIFA World Cups with Brazil but never an individual award from FIFA, as during his playing career only Europe-based players were eligible to win the original Ballon d'Or.

• Ballon d'Or
• FIFA World Player of the Year
• The Best FIFA Football Awards
• FIFPro World11

Notes