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The Ballon d'Or is the greatest individual prize in football and it has been awarded to some of the finest players to have graced the game. We've gotten so used to seeing Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo winning the Ballon d'Or over the past decade and a half that Luka Modric winning it in 2018, although deservedly, felt like a glitch in the matrix.
This hasn't always been the case. The Ballon d'Or used to change hands on a yearly basis in the past and some of the most revered individuals in football have been recipients of the most prestigious individual award in football.
The Ballon d'Or is set to return after being cancelled in 2020
We were likely to have a new winner in 2020 with Robert Lewandowski outperforming his competition by a country mile. But unfortunately, the Ballon d'Or was canceled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The race for the Ballon d'Or has been blown wide open this year and there's no predicting who will get their hands on it this time around. Without further ado, let's take a look at five of the greatest Ballon d'Or winners of all time.
#5 Johan Cruyff - 1971
Barcelona and Ajax legend Johan Cruyff has left an indelible mark on the beautiful game and is a footballing genius. He was incredibly successful as a player and as a manager and was a cut above the rest when he was at his peak, winning three consecutive Ballon d'Or's between 1971 and 1974.
Cruyff enjoyed his best season at an individual level in 1971, playing for Ajax, which is regarded as one of the greatest teams in the history of the game. Cruyff won the Eredivisie and the European Cup in 1971 after beating Panathinaikos in the final.
The Dutchman was also crowned the Dutch and European Footballer of the Year. Cruyff was the poster boy of total football and he was a versatile footballer whose technical ability was second to none. He scored 27 goals in 37 matches, and beat George Best and Sandro Mazzola to the Ballon d'Or.
#4 Ronaldo Nazario - 1997
Ronaldo was expected to win the Ballon d'Or in 1996 but the award eventually went to Matthias Sammer, much to everyone's surprise. However, in 1997, there was no denying the magical Brazilian.
One of the finest strikers in the history of the game, Ronaldo enjoyed two of his most prolific seasons in 1996-97 for Barcelona and then in 1997-98 for Inter Milan. In the lone season he played for Barcelona, he scored a whopping 47 goals in 49 games and won the Copa Del Rey and Supercopa de Espana with the Catalans.
He kicked on in the same vein for Inter Milan and was easily the standout performer in 1997 in all regards. In the summer, when he joined Inter Milan from Barcelona for around £25 million, he became the second player after Maradona to break the transfer record for the most expensive player twice.
#3 Zinedine Zidane - 1998
Zinedine Zidane led from the front as France were crowned World Champions in 1998. A man for the big occasion, Zizou scored a brace in the World Cup final in 1998 against Brazil. He had an excellent season all round and dominated the midfield realms with his deft touches and unmatched vision on the football field.
Zidane also won the Serie A title with Juventus that season. He was also pivotal to Juventus' journey to the UEFA Champions League final and though they lost in the final, Zidane was lauded for his performance.
It's hard to find a footballer who was as aware of things happening around him as Zidane was. He was also extremely talented in a technical sense. He could slalom past defenders and thread exquisite through balls to his forwards and he had the ability to make everything look easy.
#2 Cristiano Ronaldo - 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best footballers of all time and in an illustrious career that has spanned almost two decades, he enjoyed arguably his best year in 2016. Ronaldo and Messi both continued to be criticized for not being able to win major trophies with their national side but in 2016, the Portuguese put that to rest.
He won the Euros with Portugal and that was just the icing on the cake. It was also the year in which Real Madrid won the first of their three consecutive UEFA Champions League titles and Ronaldo was central to their success.
He scored 16 goals in 12 Champions League games in addition to scoring 35 goals and racking up 11 assists in 36 La Liga matches that season. He was the clear-cut favourite to win all major individual honours that year and beat Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann to his fourth Ballon d'Or.
#1 Lionel Messi - 2012
Lionel Messi of 2012 was a beast. After scoring an absolutely incredible 73 goals for Barcelona in the 2011-12 season, the Argentine bagged a total of 91 goals for both club and country in 2012 which is the most by any player in a calendar year in the history of the game.
Barcelona did not win the league or the Champions League that season but numbers like that cannot be overlooked. Lionel Messi was just unstoppable, wriggling his way into the box with the ball glued to his foot and beating goalkeepers with all kinds of finishing techniques.
At times, it almost looked like he was having too much fun at the expense of others. 73 goals and 29 assists in a single season for a club is just a phenomenal achievement and if you have to win the Ballon d'Or without major trophies, you will need to do something like that on a personal level.
