Every Ballon d'Or Winner, 1956 to 2025

The Ballon d'Or has been awarded 69 times since 1956, and on Monday 26 October 2026 the 70th goes to someone in London. Lionel Messi has won it eight times. England have not had a winner since Michael Owen in 2001. Here is every winner, the records, the near-misses and the arguments, and what Harry Kane or Lamine Yamal would add to the list.

Where the Ballon d'Or came from

The French magazine France Football created the award in 1956 to name the best player in Europe, voted for by football journalists. The first winner was Blackpool's Stanley Matthews, aged 41. That is why the 70th ceremony is at the London Palladium.

For almost 40 years only European players could win it, which is why Pelé and Diego Maradona never did. The rules opened to any player at a European club in 1995, and George Weah of Liberia won it straight away with AC Milan. Since 2007 any player in the world has been eligible.

From 2010 to 2015 it was merged with FIFA's World Player of the Year as the FIFA Ballon d'Or. France Football went back to running it alone in 2016, added the women's award in 2018, and has run it with UEFA since 2024. In 2022 it switched from the calendar year to the season.

The records

Defenders rarely win it. Franz Beckenbauer (1972, 1976), Matthias Sammer (1996) and Fabio Cannavaro (2006) are the only ones. Holding midfielders have done better lately: Rodri won in 2024.

England's Ballon d'Or winners

England have won it five times through four players: Stanley Matthews (1956), Bobby Charlton (1966, the year of the World Cup), Kevin Keegan twice at Hamburg (1978 and 1979) and Michael Owen at Liverpool (2001). From the rest of the British Isles, Denis Law (Scotland, 1964) and George Best (Northern Ireland, 1968) both won it at Manchester United.

That is 25 years without an English winner. Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice are all on the 2026 shortlist, and Kane is one of the two favourites.

The ones that started arguments

• 2010: Wesley Sneijder won the treble with Inter and reached the World Cup final with the Netherlands, but he didn't make the top three. Messi won, ahead of Spain's world champions Andrés Iniesta and Xavi.
• 2019: Virgil van Dijk won the Champions League with Liverpool and finished second, seven points behind Messi.
• 2020: No award was given because of the pandemic, in the season Robert Lewandowski scored 55 goals and won the treble with Bayern. He finished second to Messi in 2021.
• 2024: Real Madrid stayed away from the ceremony on reports that Vinícius Júnior would not win. Rodri took the award.

2026 has its own version: Yamal saying the award should not go to "a player who has scored 80 goals", and Kane, with 73, declining to argue back.

The women's Ballon d'Or winners

Every men's Ballon d'Or winner, 1956 to 2025

What 2026 could add

A Kane win would be England's first in 25 years and the first by a player from a German club since Matthias Sammer in 1996. A Yamal win would make him, at 19, the youngest winner ever, beating Ronaldo Nazário's record from 1997. For the full shortlist and how the vote works, read Ballon d'Or 2026: date, nominees and how voting works.

The Bottom Line

Seventy years in, the Ballon d'Or is still an argument as much as an award. On Monday it either goes to the most prolific scorer in Europe, which would end England's 25-year wait, or to a 19-year-old who would break a record that has stood since 1997. We put both, and the other 28, through the data in the Ballon d'Or nominees, ranked by data.