About this chart race
For half a century the Ballon d'Or was a prize almost nobody won twice. Alfredo Di Stéfano, Franz Beckenbauer, Kevin Keegan and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge managed two each; Johan Cruyff reached three in 1974, and only Michel Platini (1983–85) and Marco van Basten matched that. Three wins stood as the record for 34 years.
Then the chart stops being a race and becomes a duel. Lionel Messi won his first in 2009 and his eighth in 2023 — a record that doubles the old one. Cristiano Ronaldo, who won in 2008 and four more times between 2013 and 2017, is second on five. Between 2008 and 2023 the two of them took 13 of the 15 awards handed out; only Luka Modrić in 2018 and Karim Benzema in 2022 broke the run.
The recent years belong to new names: Rodri in 2024 and Ousmane Dembélé in 2025. No award was given in 2020, when the ceremony was cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic — the only blank year since the prize began, which is why every line runs flat through it.
One caveat worth knowing when reading the early years: until 1995 only European players were eligible, and it was not until 2007 that the award opened to players worldwide. That is why some of the greatest names in the sport never appear here at all.
The 1997 and 2002 winner is the Brazilian Ronaldo, listed as "Ronaldo (Brazil)" to keep him distinct from Cristiano Ronaldo.
This animated ranking shows how cumulative ballon d'or wins changed across 47 series between 1956 and 2025. The bars re-order themselves as the years advance, so overtakes are visible as they happen rather than hidden inside a table. Use the list on the left to choose exactly who competes, drag the slider to jump to any year, or open the table view to read the underlying numbers.
As of 2025, Lionel Messi leads with 8 awards.
Included in this race
Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Michel Platini, Marco van Basten, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldo (Brazil), Kevin Keegan, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Franz Beckenbauer, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Zinedine Zidane, Stanley Matthews, Ruud Gullit, Ronaldinho, Rodri, Roberto Baggio, Rivaldo, Raymond Kopa, Pavel Nedvěd, Paolo Rossi, Ousmane Dembélé, Omar Sívori, Oleg Blokhin, Michael Owen, Matthias Sammer, Luka Modrić, Luis Suárez, Luís Figo, Lothar Matthäus, Lev Yashin, Karim Benzema, Kaká, Josef Masopust, Jean-Pierre Papin, Igor Belanov, Hristo Stoichkov, Gianni Rivera, Gerd Müller, George Weah, George Best, Flórián Albert, Fabio Cannavaro, Eusébio, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton, Andriy Shevchenko, Allan Simonsen.
Source
Data from Wikipedia — Ballon d'Or. Every figure shown comes from this source — nothing is estimated or generated.
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