The Ballon d’Or has never just been about footballing excellence. Politics, narratives and trophies often skew the outcome. We revisit every award since 2008 and cut through the noise. Did the right player actually win?
2008 – Cristiano Ronaldo
Our pick – Cristiano Ronaldo
No controversy here. Ronaldo scored 42 goals across all competitions in the 2007/08 campaign as Manchester United secured the Premier League and Champions League titles. The star player in the dominant team, the Ballon d’Or was never in doubt. Clear winner.
2009 – Lionel Messi
Our pick – Lionel Messi
Another well-deserved winner. Guardiola’s Barcelona won the treble with Messi the standout player. He won by a record margin, and rightfully so. The first of many Ballon d’Or trophies for the little magician.
2010 – Lionel Messi
Our pick – Lionel Messi
The most debated Ballon d’Or of the modern era.
Wesley Sneijder won a treble with Inter and reached a World Cup final with the Netherlands. He was instrumental in both, yet didn’t even make the top three. Still, Messi’s 47 goals and individual brilliance was enough to justify him the top prize. Sneijder should have been on the podium, but Messi was the best individual footballer on the planet that year.
2011 – Lionel Messi
Our pick – Lionel Messi
No debate this time. Messi was simply the best footballer in the world at this point in time. Messi scored 53 and was the star in what Sir Alex Ferguson called the best team he had ever faced.
2012 – Lionel Messi
Our pick – Lionel Messi
The greatest single season a player has ever had. Messi scored a ridiculous 91 goals in the calendar year, shattering every record going. The season that cemented his position in the GOAT conversation.
2013 – Cristiano Ronaldo
Our pick – Cristiano Ronaldo
CR7 was in a league of his own during 2013. Granted, Messi was injured a lot, but Ronaldo was on a completely different level as an individual player. Franck Ribéry had a serious claim as Bayern’s best player in their treble-winning side, but Ronaldo was simply a level above.
2014 – Cristiano Ronaldo
Our pick – Cristiano Ronaldo
There was only ever going to be one winner after Real Madrid finally won La Décima. Ronaldo’s 17 Champions League goals in a single campaign is still a record and looking unlikely to be broken any time soon.
2015 – Lionel Messi
Our pick – Lionel Messi
The MSN trio ran riot, with Messi as both the architect and executioner. Another treble, another Ballon d’Or that was never in any doubt.
2016 – Cristiano Ronaldo
Our pick – Cristiano Ronaldo
Another Champions League with Real Madrid and Euro 2016 glory with Portugal, there was only ever going to be one winner. His appearance in the Final against France was cut short through injury, but his knockout goals for Real and leadership for Portugal across the year carried weight with the judges.
2017 – Cristiano Ronaldo
Our pick – Cristiano Ronaldo
Another obvious win for Ronaldo. Back-to-back Champions League wins with 42 goals across the 2016/17 season, it was only ever going to be Ronaldo picking up the Ballon d’Or.
2018 – Luka Modric
Our pick – Cristiano Ronaldo
Our first disagreement. This isn’t to say Modric wasn’t fantastic – after all he carried Croatia to a World Cup final and was instrumental in Real Madrid’s dominant midfield. But Ronaldo scored 44 goals, including 15 in the Champions League. CR7 consistently performed to a higher level than Modric throughout the season. Of all the performances to finally topple the Messi-Ronaldo dominance, Modric was aided by Croatia’s World Cup run rather than his individual brilliance alone.
2019 – Lionel Messi
Our pick – Lionel Messi
We’re back in agreement with the voting panel. Despite not winning the Champions League, Messi scored 51 goals and dragged Barcelona to a league title. He was playing some of the best football of his career, an impressive feat given his longevity at the top.
2020 – Cancelled
Our pick – Robert Lewandowski
The pandemic scrapped the award, but there was no debate as to who would have won. Lewandowski would have been the standout candidate. 55 goals for a Bayern team that dominated Europe and picked up a treble put him head and shoulders above the competition.
2021 – Lionel Messi
Our pick – Robert Lewandowski
If we had our way, Lewandowski would be a two-time Ballon d’Or winner. He was a monster for Bayern, breaking Gerd Müller’s Bundesliga scoring record with 41 goals. His club form should have won it, but Messi’s first Copa América swayed the voting panel.
2022 – Karim Benzema
Our pick – Karim Benzema
A career-defining season for Benzema. He’d won plenty of domestic silverware during his time at Real, but this was the season he emerged from the shadow of Cristiano Ronaldo. 44 goals, including clutch knockout hat-tricks against PSG and Chelsea rightfully earned Benzema the Ballon d’Or.
2023 – Lionel Messi
Our pick – Erling Haaland
Argentina’s World Cup run sealed the Ballon d’Or victory for Lionel Messi. Domestically, his performances for PSG and Inter Miami were good but in no way deserving of the best player in the world status. Haaland, who scored 52 goals in his debut season for Manchester City, winning the treble, was the worthy winner.
2024 – Rodri
Our pick – Vinícius Júnior
Rodri controlled matches for club and country, but it was Vinícius who delivered the moments that decided trophies. Fifteen goals in La Liga plus a Champions League winning strike should have seen him picking up the Ballon d’Or.
2025 Favourite – Ousmane Dembélé
Our pick – Ousmane Dembélé
Dembélé is the bookmakers’ frontrunner following a season that saw PSG win Ligue 1, Coupe de France, Trophée des Champions and the Champions League.
On pure individual performance alone, Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, Pedri have been more consistent and decisive across the year. But history shows us that in most cases, the Ballon d’Or rewards big trophies as much as individual brilliance. Messi in 2010 was a rare exception, although he was performing at such a level that not even the treble won by Wesley Sneijder could sway the decision making. Similarly with Ronaldo’s victory in 2013 – Ribery was the best player in a treble winning side, but it was CR7 who was undoubtedly the best player in the world.
If the Ballon d’Or voting was solely down to Score 90, Lewandowski would have back-to-back successes and Ronaldo would have had the same amount of Ballon d’Or trophies as Messi.
The dominance of Messi and Ronaldo left little debate, but with both in the twilights of their career it leaves the award wide open. From now on, the balance between decisive moments, collective success and individual brilliance will decide who takes football’s most prestigious prize.
