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The Ballon d'Or has always remained the most coveted individual award in football. Year after year for nearly a century, the best footballers in the world have gone toe-to-toe for individual glory and competed for the prestigious Golden Ball.
Until the turn of the 21st century, the Ballon d'Or was won by a host of different players playing all across the pitch. Since 2008, though, the duopoly established by Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo took over. The pair reigned supreme and won a staggering ten successive Ballon d'Or awards between them until Luka Modric broke the streak in 2018.
While they were at five apiece, Messi overtook his rival in 2019 and won his record sixth Ballon d'Or, which is at least three more than anyone in history barring Ronaldo.
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The iconic award will not be awarded in 2020 due to the unprecedented circumstances at play, but should it have been given, Robert Lewandowski would have been the frontrunner. He has been arguably the best player in the world and could have potentially won it by one of the biggest margins in the award's illustrious history.
While Messi and Ronaldo have understandably dominated the list of victories, here, we take a look at the biggest Ballon d'Or wins in history.
#10 Marco van Basten | 31.85% | 1988, 1989
Dutch legend Marco van Basten kicks off this list with two landslide victories in consecutive years. The then-AC Milan forward was simply unstoppable during this period as he helped the Oranje win the 1988 UEFA European championships, which was the solitary piece of silverware the illustrious side have registered. Van Basten was the best player at the tournament and ended as the highest scorer in West Germany.
A season after he helped the Rossoneri win an elusive Scudetto at the time, the 55-year-old followed it up with a glorious European Cup victory in 1989. His heroics with Milan — winning the Capocannoniere and scoring a brace in the European final — led him to another Ballon d'Or victory.
He received 129 votes in both years and went on to win a third in 1992. Both the seasons saw the podium occupied only by players from AC Milan, including Frank Rijkaard, Franco Baresi, and Ruud Gullit.
#9 Zinedine Zidane | 31.89% | 1998
Zinedine Zidane won the 1998 Ballon d'Or to cap off one of the most historic calendar years by an individual in football history. The Frenchman, plying his trade for Juventus at the time, helped the Bianconeri win their second successive Scudetto amidst immense competition from Inter Milan. While Zidane bested his Ballon d'Or rival Ronaldo Nazario on the domestic front with Juventus, he also managed to do so internationally as well.
The 1998 FIFA World Cup final saw a Zidane-led Les Bleus side face off against El Fenomeno's Brazil at the Stade de France. France played their rivals off the park and won the game 3-0, with Zidane scoring twice against Brazil. The current Real Madrid manager was rewarded for his incredible achievements for club and country with a landslide Ballon d'Or victory, with a whopping 244 votes in his favour. Davor Suker and Ronaldo completed the podium in second and third place.
#8 Jean-Pierre Papin | 32.41% | 1991
Jean-Pierre Papin has firmly etched his name into the folklore of French football. The diminutive forward ripped apart the French top-flight with Olympique Marseille and ended as the top scorer for five consecutive league campaigns. During his six-year spell in Marseille, the striker racked up a staggering 181 goals in 279 games, ending up as Europe's leading scorer on three separate occasions and winning four league titles.
In the 1990/91 campaign, he scored 36 goals for Les Olympiens en-route the French first division and the European Cup final and was awarded the Ballon d'Or for his achievements. Papin, to date, remains the only Frenchman to have won the prestigious award while playing for a French club.
He received 141 votes to his name to win the Ballon d'Or, with Red Star Belgrade duo Dejan Savicevic and Darko Pancev and Inter's Lothar Matthaus rounding off the podium with 42 votes apiece.
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#7 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | 32.53% | 1980
Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is arguably one of the most respected club officials in world football at the moment. However, long before the German took up this position, he was known as one of the most prolific forwards in the game. Rummenigge spent the majority of his career with the Bavarian giants, scoring over 200 goals in his ten years at the club.
The 1979/80 campaign was one of Rummenigge's finest ever seasons. The German fired Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga title and ended as the top scorer of the league with 26 goals. Additionally, the now-Bayern chairman was the talisman for the West German side that went on to win the UEFA Euros in 1980.
His heroics won him a host of honours, including the first of his two Ballon d'Or awards. Rummenigge received 122 votes and won the award over Bernd Schuster and Michel Platini. The German legend remains the last Bayern Munich player to win the Golden Ball.
#6 Lionel Messi | 32.84% | 2009
2009 is viewed by many as the year that kickstarted Leo Messi's era of dominance at the highest level of the game. The then-22-year-old Argentine was at the heart of Pep Guardiola's devastating Barcelona side as the fabled and feared false nine. Messi was not only mesmeric during the 2008/09, but was incredibly decisive with his performances.
He hit nine goals in the UCL, including strikes in the quarter-finals and the final. He also scored in the Copa del Rey final and famously ripped through Clasico rivals Real Madrid on their backyard during the Blaugrana's 6-2 drubbing of the Blancos.
There was little doubt surrounding Messi's credentials to win his maiden Ballon d'Or after he guided his boyhood side to the first of their two continental trebles. He won the award with 473 votes to his name, more than double the number Ronaldo received (233) in second place. Xavi (170) rounded off the podium.
#5 Cristiano Ronaldo | 37.66% | 2014
Cristiano Ronaldo has had several stunning seasons in the Spanish capital, but the 2014 campaign could be argued as his most memorable campaign in terms of his incredible scoring rate. The Portuguese icon enjoyed a surreal UCL campaign with Real Madrid and guided them to the famous La Decima under former boss Carlo Ancelotti.
Ronaldo did, however, face criticism for his victory, as both Leo Messi and Manuel Neuer were strongly favoured in the build-up to the ceremony.
The Argentine and the German were pivotal in their national sides' runs to the FIFA World Cup final. Messi was also adjudged as the best player of the tournament and was one win away from sealing his name into the history books. In retrospect, Ronaldo drew criticism for his lack of contribution with Portugal in the World Cup, unlike both Neuer and Messi.
Nonetheless, Ronaldo's faithful would argue that his jaw-dropping 61 goals across all competitions for Madrid and Portugal — topped off by the incredible La Decima — warranted a Ballon d'Or win. The Juventus man also set the record for most UCL goals in a campaign (17 in 11 games), which remains intact to date.
#4 Lionel Messi | 41.33% | 2015
A year after Real Madrid lifted La Decima, Barcelona made history by becoming the first and, until recently, the only club to win two continental trebles. Messi was their talisman, and along with the likes of Neymar and Luis Suarez, the Argentine was at his majestic best. He ended the campaign with a jaw-dropping 52 goals and 26 assists in 61 games.
In LaLiga Santander alone, Messi scored 43 goals and assisted 18, topping the charts for both goals and assists. He also racked up 16 goals and assists in just 13 UCL games, and also recorded nine-goal contributions in six Copa del Rey matches.
The Barcelona legend scored what is simply one of the greatest goals in football history against Athletic Bilbao in the latter competition. Messi was joined by his rival Ronaldo and teammate Neymar on the podium and won the award by a resounding margin, as he was recognized for his contribution towards one of the most outstanding club campaigns ever recorded in European football.
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#3 Lionel Messi | 41.60% | 2012
Messi's win in 2012 has to go down as one of the most straightforward Ballon d'Or victories of all time. More importantly, this particular victory goes on to highlight the fact that the prestigious award takes individual accolades into consideration over all else. Although Messi won only the Copa del Rey during the 2011/12 campaign, his records on a personal level were simply astonishing.
The majestic Argentine broke Gerd Muller's long-standing record and scored a staggering 91 goals for club and country in the calendar year 2012 — a record that stands to date. Messi scored 50 LaLiga goals in 37 games along with 16 assists and also notched up 14 strikes in 11 UCL appearances.
His stunning achievements were also recognised by Gerd Muller and Bayern Munich, who dedicated a shrine to Messi in the club's museum. While both Ronaldo (second) and Andres Iniesta (third) had compelling cases to win the award, after a season like Messi's, there was only ever going to be one winner.
#2 Cristiano Ronaldo | 47.84% | 2016
Widely regarded as Cristiano Ronaldo's greatest season in one of the most illustrious careers football has witnessed, the 2016 Ballon d'Or had his name written all over it. One of the major criticisms faced by both the Portuguese and Messi is their lack of international honours with their countries. While this stands true till date for the latter, it was in 2016 that Ronaldo etched his name into the history books.
2016 saw Ronaldo at his finest, perhaps not in pure goalscoring terms, but as a footballer and as a leader. The Real Madrid man fired his side to La Unadecima, the first of three successive UCL triumphs with Los Blancos, by scoring 16 goals in just 12 UCL games. The forward also racked up 35 goals and 11 assists in 36 LaLiga Santander fixtures that year.
On the international stage, the former Manchester United man guided Portugal to their first-ever piece of silverware, as he helped Fernando Santos' men win the UEFA Euros in 2016, scoring three and setting up two in seven appearances.
Ronaldo was simply unstoppable during this period and rightfully won the fourth of his five Ballons d'Or with 745 votes to his name, blowing Messi and Antoine Griezmann out of the water.
#1 Lionel Messi | 47.88% | 2011
Pep Guardiola's Barcelona as a collective is viewed by many as one of the greatest sides ever assembled in football history. While they won the sextuple in his first full year in charge, there is a valid argument to be made for this rendition of the side is the best of his spell at the club. Barcelona were rampant and romped their way to the UCL as well as LaLiga, and Messi was as decisive as ever for the Spanish giants.
With over 50 goals across all competitions, the Argentine ended the campaign with 31 goals and 18 assists in 31 games, and a further 12 in the UCL in just 11 starts for the club. There was barely any metric applicable in the final third that Messi did not top for the Catalans — goals, assists, passes, dribbles, he had it all. He topped Europe with a stunning tally of 53 goals and 24 assists.
His 2011 win remains the most dominant Ballon d'Or win in history, and the margin even surprised Messi himself. Speaking on his victory, Messi told France Football;
"I was a bit surprised with the big gap between me and the number two. Cristiano Ronaldo and Xavi would have been worthy winners as well."
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