Best winners XI, including Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo

Conceived in 1956 by sports writers Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran, the Ballon d’Or is widely considered to be football’s most esteemed individual prize.

Designed to honour the world’s (formerly Europe’s) best player over the previous season, some of the game’s greatest stars have laid their hands on the prize, including Lionel Messi, who has won it a record eight times.

With this year’s awards ceremony on October 28 now fast approaching, we’ve put together a starting XI of what we believe to be the best-ever Ballon d’Or winners.

1

Lev Yashin

Goalkeeper (1963 winner)

Lev Yashin is the only goalkeeper to have ever won the Ballon d’Or, having scooped the award in 1963.

Nicknamed the “Black Spider” because of his trademark all-black outfit and how it seemed he had eight arms to save everything, Yashin revolutionised the goalkeeper position.

At a time when the job of the goalkeeper was merely to stand between the posts and save shots, he was known for coming off his line to catch crosses, running out of his goal to meet oncoming attackers, and shouting orders at his defenders.

2

Fabio Cannavaro

Centre-back (2006 winner)

Since the turn of the century, just one defender has won the Ballon d’Or. That man is Fabio Cannavaro, who was handed the prize shortly after he captained Italy to World Cup glory in 2006.

Despite his relatively short stature (he is just 5ft 9), Cannavaro was a commanding force in the heart of defence, boasting superb tackling skills, frightening pace, and surprising strength thanks to his low centre of gravity. More than that, however, he was ahead of his time.

The Italian read the game superbly and was renowned for carrying the ball out from the back to launch attacks. Both of those qualities are now widely considered must-haves for modern centre-backs.

3

Franz Beckenbauer

Centre-back (1972, 1976 winner)

Described by Pele (who never won the Ballon d’Or due to it originally being only for European players) as “one of the best” he ever saw play, Frankz Beckenbauer was the complete player.

Often credited with inventing the role of the modern sweeper, not only was he effective at stopping forwards in their tracks, but he was also equally effective in midfield and attack, capable of pulling the strings from the middle of the park and finding the net, as demonstrated by his impressive career goals haul.

A Germany and Bayern Munich legend, Beckenbauer won almost everything on offer during his career, including the World Cup, European Championship, European Cup and Bundesliga to go with two Ballon d’Or crowns, first in 1972 before repeating the feat in 1976.

4

Matthias Sammer

Centre-back (1996 winner)

Matthias Sammer started his career as a midfielder, and though he enjoyed reasonable success in the middle of the park, he really came into his own when he was converted to a defender in 1994 by Borussia Dortmund coach Ottmar Hitzfeld.

Following the shift, Sammer won back-to-back Bundesliga titles with Dortmund in 1995 and 1996, before then captaining Die Schwarzgelben to their first Champions League in 1997. On top of those domestic achievements, Sammer also won the European Championship with Germany in 1996 and the Ballon d’Or the same year.

Sadly, soon after he guided Dortmund to European glory, his career was cut short by injury and was forced to retire in 1998. Still, his Di Maggio-like streak in the years prior remains among the greatest in football history.

5

Cristiano Ronaldo

Right-midfield (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 winner)

Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon d’Or no less than five times, first in 2008 and most recently in 2017.

Now approaching 40 and still going strong in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Nassr, the Portuguese winger is the greatest goalscorer in football history. As of October 2024, in just over 1,200 professional games for club and country, Ronaldo has scored an eye-watering 907 goals, 450 of which came during his nine-year spell at Real Madrid between 2009 and 2018.

Whether scoring with his head, right foot or left foot, nobody has ever been as good at finding the net than Ronaldo. Unless it’s from a free-kick, perhaps.

6

Zinedine Zidane

Centre-midfield (1998 winner)

Zinedine Zidane won the Ballon d’Or in 1998, shortly after he lifted the World Cup with France.

A truly one-of-a-kind midfielder, Zidane was an oxymoron of a footballer. Somehow, he was both energetic and languid in equal measure. He was powerful yet graceful, dynamic but nonchalant.

He also possessed an almost supernatural ability to retain the ball, buying himself space that appeared not to be there thanks to his superb first touch and incredible foreshadowing of his opponents’ and teammates’ next moves.

7

Michel Platini

Centre-midfield (1983, 1984, 1985 winner)

To the younger generation, Michel Platini is probably best known for being the disgraced former president of UEFA who was banned from football in 2015 for accepting an improper payment from ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

To older supporters, however, the Frenchman is best remembered as one of the finest players of his generation.

An elegant and intelligent midfield playmaker, Platini operated mostly in the pocket behind the strikers, finding space where he used to carve out chances for those in front of him and find the net himself – something he did 354 times during his career.

Like Zidane, he also possessed an innate ability to see what was going to happen before it played out, meaning he was always one (or sometimes two or three) steps ahead of those around him.

Platini was the first player to win the Ballon d’Or three times in a row, scooping the award in 1983, 1984, and 1985.

8

Lionel Messi

Left-midfield (2009-2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023 winner)

Simply the greatest to ever play the game, no player has won the Ballon d’Or more times than Lionel Messi, who has been named the world’s top footballer on eight different occasions.

At this point, so much has been said about the Argentinian, that it’s difficult to find new words to describe how brilliant he was, and in many respects, still is. So, instead, we will let the former Newcastle United player turned legendary pundit Ray Hudson do the talking.

“They tell me that all men are equal in God’s eyes, this player makes you seriously think about those words,” Hudson once said of Messi.

9

Ronaldinho

Attacking midfield (2005 winner)

Messi is no doubt the greatest to ever play football, but arguably few players have ever made watching the sport more enjoyable than Ronaldinho, who won the Ballon d’Or in 2005.

Boasting a bag of tricks bigger than Santa Claus’ sack, the Brazilian played football not as if he was playing in front of thousands each week, but as if he was still playing futsal on the beaches of Porto Alegre, free to express himself fully without fear.

Many players today and in the past have faced criticism for playing in such a way, being berated by managers and fans alike for not conforming to the rigours of the professional game and putting themselves ahead of the needs of the team. Not Ronaldinho, though. He did it with such excellence and with a huge smile on his face that it was almost impossible to criticise him, let alone dislike him.

Genius needs freedom to flourish, and Ronaldinho was just that: a genius.

10

Ronaldo

Centre-forward (1997, 2002 winner)

There is a reason Ronaldo Nazario was nicknamed “O Fenomeno” (The Phenomenon).

Ronaldo, who won the Ballon d’Or in 1997 and 2002, possessed every attribute you could dream of in a striker: pace, power, skill, awareness, and a lethal eye for goal.

During his heyday, his name alone struck fear into the hearts of opposition defenders, who knew that one minor lapse in concentration was all it took for them to be punished by the Brazilian – and even that wasn’t required most of the time. Thanks to his dazzling feet and bullish strength, Ronaldo had the tools to unlock any defence at will.

However, what’s most telling about Ronaldo is how highly he is regarded by his footballing peers, especially given that his career – during which he scored 414 goals for club and country – was hampered by injuries.

“The best player I have ever played with? That’s Ronaldo. I have seen Il Fenomeno do things that nobody else has ever done,” Ronaldo’s former Brazil teammate Kaka once said of him. “The speed of thought that he had – and the speed he had to carry out his actions – were perfect. It was something amazing. I’ve thought a lot about other players before. I think he was a phenomenon.”

11

Johan Cruyff

Centre-forward (1971, 1973, 1974 winner)

We’ve all heard of the Cruyff turn – the famous move that involves a player faking a pass or shot, then dragging the ball behind their standing leg with the inside of their foot to turn away from the defender.

Of course, that move was named after its ‘creator’, Johan Cruyff. However, the Dutchman’s football legacy is far greater than just having a skill named after him.

Cruyff, who spent most of his career with Ajax and Barcelona and won the Ballon d’Or on three occasions, changed the way football was played. As a player, and later as a coach, he implemented and refined the philosophy of Total Football, the famed Dutch tactical system that centred around the creation of space through players moving freely between positions.

Had it not been for Cruyff’s ideology, modern football may not look as it does today. Most notably, there would be no Pep Guardiola – by the Spaniard’s own admission. That means no Xavi, no Andres Iniesta, no Sergio Busquets, no Kevin De Bruyne, and, perhaps, no Lionel Messi.