Football has a curious habit of turning collective achievements into individual arguments. Eleven players start a match, substitutes change its course, coaches shape it from the touchline and supporters create the atmosphere, yet at the end of the season the question is often reduced to one name, who is the best player in the world?
For almost seven decades, the Ballon d’Or has attempted to provide an answer. But can one player really be the best in a sport that, by its very nature, belongs to a team?
The award began in 1956, created by France Football magazine to recognise the outstanding player in European football. Stanley Matthews, then playing for Blackpool, became its first winner. The English winger was 41 when he collected the prize, setting a remarkable precedent for an award that would eventually become synonymous with youth, statistics, stardom and global fame.
Yet the Ballon d’Or was never truly global at first. Until 1995, only European players were eligible. That meant some of football’s greatest figures, including Pelé and Diego Maradona, could not win it. The rules were subsequently expanded to include players of any nationality playing for European clubs, before eligibility became worldwide in 2007. Liberia’s George Weah became the first African winner in 1995.
As the award evolved, so did the argument over what it actually measures. Is it about the most talented player? The player who had the greatest individual season? The player who delivered when it mattered most? Or, inevitably, the star who happened to be part of the team that won the biggest trophies?
The official voting system offers no simple answer. Journalists are asked to consider individual performances, team achievements, as well as a player’s class and fair play. That combination sounds reasonable, but it creates an unavoidable tension: individual brilliance can be measured within a team, but team success can also dramatically influence how that brilliance is remembered.
History provides fascinating evidence on both sides. Fabio Cannavaro won in 2006 after captaining Italy to the World Cup, while Luka Modrić claimed the prize in 2018 after helping Real Madrid win the Champions League and Croatia reach the World Cup final. Yet the winners are not always simply the stars of the season’s most successful team. Lionel Messi won in 2010 despite Spain winning the World Cup, while Cristiano Ronaldo won in 2013 even though Real Madrid did not win the Champions League or La Liga that season.
There is also the question of position. Goals and assists naturally attract attention, making forwards easier to celebrate than defenders, midfielders or goalkeepers. Lev Yashin remains the only goalkeeper ever to win the men’s Ballon d’Or, doing so in 1963. Fabio Cannavaro’s 2006 triumph also stands out as a rare victory for a defender in the modern era.
Perhaps, then, the Ballon d’Or should not be viewed as a scientific declaration of football’s objectively best player. There is no perfect formula for comparing a striker’s goals with a midfielder’s control, a defender’s positioning or a goalkeeper’s saves. Instead, it is a snapshot of how football judges excellence at a particular moment.
That may be precisely why the award has survived. From Matthews to Messi, Ronaldo, Modrić, Benzema, Rodri and the modern generation, the Ballon d’Or has never completely settled the argument. It has merely given football a stage on which to have it every year.
And perhaps that is its greatest achievement. The Ballon d’Or does not prove who is the best. It gives the football world something almost as valuable, a reason to argue about it.
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