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The Ballon d'Or (lit. 'Golden Ball') is an annual football award presented by French news magazine France Football since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (founded in 1991) and known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or. That partnership ended in 2016, and the award reverted to the Ballon d'Or, while FIFA also reverted to its own separate annual award The Best FIFA Men's Player. The recipients of the joint FIFA Ballon d'Or are considered as winners by both award organisations. The Ballon d’Or is generally regarded as football’s most prestigious and valuable individual award.

Conceived by sports writers Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran, the Ballon d'Or award honours the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists, from 1956 to 2006. Originally, it was awarded only to players from Europe and widely known as the European Footballer of the Year award. In 1995, the Ballon d'Or was expanded to include all players from any origin that have been active at European clubs.

After 2007, coaches and captains of national teams were also given the right to vote. The award became a global prize in 2007 with all professional footballers from around the world being eligible. In 2022, France Football modified the rules for the Ballon d'Or. They changed the timing so that awards were given not for achievements during a calendar year, but for a football season. It was also decided that only those countries in the top 100 of the FIFA World Ranking would be allowed to vote.

History
Stanley Matthews of England was the inaugural winner of the Ballon d'Or. Prior to 2007, the award was generally known as the continental European Footballer of the Year award in English language and much international media. Even after 2007, it was usually identified with and referred to by that name because of its origin as a European award, until it was merged with FIFA's World Player award cementing its new worldwide claim. Liberia's George Weah, the first African recipient, became the first non-European to win the award in 1995, the year that rules of eligibility were changed. Ronaldo of Brazil became the first South American winner two years later.

Lionel Messi has won the award a record six times, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo with five. Four players have won the award three times each: Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, Marco van Basten, and Erling Haaland. With nine awards, German players have won the most Ballons d'Or. Players from Germany (1972, 1981) and the Netherlands (1988) occupied the top-three top spots in a single year (a feat achieved only three times in history). German (1972) and Italian (1988–1990) clubs achieved the same feat, including two individual years dominated by AC Milan players (1988, 1989), a unique record until Spanish clubs experienced an unforeseen dominance (2009–2012, 2015, 2016) and Barcelona (2010) became the second club to occupy the top-three. Barcelona also leads the ranking for producing the most winners, with 12 wins. During the 2020's, English clubs began a period of ongoing dominance, occupying the top-three on six occasions (2022-2024, 2026, 2030, 2031).

Between 2010 and 2015 inclusive, the award was merged with a similar one, the FIFA World Player of the Year award, to create the FIFA Ballon d'Or, which was awarded to the world's best male player before FIFA and France Football decided not to continue the merging agreement. After 2011, UEFA created the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award to maintain the tradition of the original Ballon d'Or of specifically honouring a football player from Europe.

In 2020, the Group L'Équipe, to which France Football belongs, decided that no award would be given for the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic cutting short the seasons of football clubs worldwide. The widespread public opinion is that the 2020 award should have been given to Robert Lewandowski.

The award shows a bias in favor of attacking players, which has increased in recent years, especially after 2007. Over time, the award has gone to a more exclusive set of leagues and clubs. Prior to 1995, 10 leagues supplied Ballon d'Or winners, whereas only England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have supplied winners since 1995. Spain's La Liga has the most Ballon d'Or winners. Barcelona and Real Madrid have supplied the most Ballon d'Or winners since 1995.

In 2022, France Football modified the rules for the Ballon d'Or. They changed the timing so that awards were given not for achievements during a calendar year, but for a football season. It was also decided that only those countries in the top 100 of the FIFA World Ranking would be allowed to vote. The plebiscite had previously been open to all countries since 2007. This brought the Ballon d'Or into line with the UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award which was slightly less dominated by exclusive leagues and, in particular, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in recent years.

Eight players (Bobby Charlton, Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Paolo Rossi, Zinedine Zidane, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Kaká) have won the FIFA World Cup, the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, and the Ballon d'Or during their careers.

Winners
Note: Until 2021, the Ballon d'Or was awarded based on player performance during the calendar year. Since 2022, jurors have been instructed to take into account the previous season.

Super Ballon d'Or
An honorary award, under the name Super Ballon d'Or, was awarded to Alfredo Di Stéfano in 1989, who was voted the best multiple-time Ballon d'Or winner ahead of Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini.

In addition Diego Maradona received an honorary Ballon d'Or in 1995 for his services to football dubbed the Golden Ballon d'Or. Pelé also received a similar award in January 2014 dubbed the FIFA Ballon d’Or Prix d’Honneur.

Kopa Trophy
Since 2018 France Football has given out the Kopa Trophy to the best U21 player in the world. The award is named after former Ballon d'Or winner Raymond Kopa.

Yashin Trophy
First awarded in 2019, the Yashin Trophy is presented to the best goalkeeper of the year. The award was named after Soviet goalkeeper and former Ballon d'Or winner Lev Yashin.

Gerd Müller Trophy
In 2021 France Football awarded Robert Lewandowski with a Striker of the Year award for scoring the most goals the previous season. After Gerd Müller passing the award was renamed as the Gerd Müller Trophy.

Club of the Year
France Football first gave out the Club of the Year award in 2021, with the inaugural winner being Chelsea.

Sócrates Award
In 2022 France Football gave out the first edition of the Sócrates Award to Sadio Mané for his humanitarian efforts in Senegal. The award was named after Brazilian footballer Sócrates.

Football Player of the Century
A decade later, France Football voted Pelé as the Football Player of the Century after consulting their former Ballon d'Or recipients. Among the 34 previous winners, 30 cast their votes, while Stanley Matthews, Omar Sívori and George Best refused to vote, and Lev Yashin had died. Each voter was allotted five votes worth up to five points; however, Di Stéfano only chose a first place, Platini a first and second place, and George Weah two players for fifth place. Pelé was named the greatest by 17 voters, receiving almost double the number of points earned by the runner-up, Diego Maradona.

Le nouveau palmarès
To coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Ballon d'Or in 2016, France Football published a reevaluation of the awards presented before 1995, when only European players were eligible to win the award. 12 out of the 39 Ballons d'Or presented during this time period would have been awarded to South American players; in addition to Pelé and Diego Maradona, Garrincha, Mario Kempes, and Romário were retrospectively recognized as worthy winners. The original recipients, however, remain unchanged.

All-Star Team
In 1978, France Football published an article about that year's South American Footballer of the Year award in which they hypothesised a match between a South American All-Star Team and a European All-Star team, featuring the players who had performed the best in the award rankings. An article from 1994 published by El País reports a "Golden Team" having been chosen at the 1994 Ballon d'Or gala.