Ballon d’Or winners: Who won the most? Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and others

The Ballon d’Or award is considered the most prestigious individual award in football, synonymous with the title of best player in the world.

The list of previous winners is a veritable honor roll of superstars past and present. Winning a Ballon d’Or trophy is considered the apex of individual success over the course of any player’s career.

But to win multiple editions of the Golden Ball is the stuff of legends. In fact, there are only 10 players who have ever done it and their names are ones most any football fan would recognize.

A look back at these previous honorees makes clear the high bar that players need to achieve in order to get their hands on the Ballon d’Or. It is an exclusive club.

MORE: Date, time, and how to watch 2022 Ballon d’Or award ceremony

Who has won the most Ballon d’Or awards?

The player with the most Ballon d’Or awards all-time is Lionel Messi who has won it seven times. Behind him is Messi’s long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo with five Ballon d’Or awards.

Only 10 players all-time have claimed multiple Ballon d’Or awards. There have been 34 other players who have claimed the Ballon d’Or once in their career.

MORE: Who are the 2022 Ballon d’Or nominees? All the finalists

Men’s Ballon d’Or winners

The first Ballon d’Or was awarded in 1956 to Blackpool legend Stanley Matthews, one of the greats of the English game.

Dutch giant Johan Cruyff became the first to win it three times in the 1970s. French star Michel Platini won it three times in a row — the first to achieve that feat — in the 80’s.

Most recently, Messi won the 2021 Ballon d’Or, beating out Robert Lewandowski and Jorginho by a narrow margin for his seventh trophy.

Messi and Ronaldo have won 12 of the last 13 Ballon d’Or awards, with only Luka Modric capable of stopping that run in 2018. Those three are the only active players to have won a Ballon d’Or.

The women’s Ballon d’Or has been awarded since 2018 with the 2020 event cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ballon d’Or Feminin

What is the Ballon d’Or?

The Ballon d’Or, which translates from French to “Golden Ball”, is the most prestigious individual award in world football, honoring the best men’s and women’s player across the globe for that season.

The award was started by French publication France Football in 1956, and has been awarded every season since, except for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ballon d’Or was absorbed by FIFA in 2010 as part of a six-year partnership that ran through 2015. At that time it reverted back to France Football’s sole ownership, with FIFA launching its own end-of-season player honors, called FIFA The Best awards.

The Ballon d’Or recognized men’s players since its inception. In 2018, France Football established the Ballon d’Or Feminine to recognize the best women’s player across the world.

The Ballon d’Or had historically recognized player performance over the course of a calendar year, but that has recently changed to align more closely with the European club season calendar.

The 2022 award will be handed out in October of 2022 to recognize the best player across the 2021/22 club season, which ran from August 2021 to June 2022.