Top 10 Players With The Most Ballon D’or Awards

Yesterday, Karim Benzema of Real Madrid won the 66th Ballon D’or in history. As you know, Benzema played a pivotal role in Madrid’s run to the Champions League title last season, was the first French player to win the trophy since Zinedine Zidane in 1998 and the fifth after Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini, and Jean-Pierre Papin. Benzema who is a first-time Ballon d’Or winner said anything is possible if one never gives up on his dreams.

The Ballon D’or is no doubt one of the most prestigious individual awards a footballer can win. The award is given to the player that performs exceptionally in a calendar year. It was earlier given to European players and then it extended to players that were part of clubs in the continent.

However, from 2007 onwards, the purview of the awards covers all corners of the world where every player is eligible. Despite how prestigious and competitive the award has become they are incredible players who have won the award multiple times. Here is a look at the top 10 players with the most Ballon d’Or awards in football history.

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1. Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi is the all-time leading player with the most Ballon d’Or awards. He won the award in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, and 2021. The Argentine footballer is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, with a record six European Golden Shoes. Prior to his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, he had spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he won a club-record 35 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles, and four UEFA Champions Leagues.

Messi, a prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker holds the records for most goals in La Liga (474), most goals in a La Liga and European league season (50), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36), and the UEFA Champions League (8), and most assists in La Liga (192), and the Copa América (17). He also holds the record for most international goals by a South American male (90). Messi has scored over 780 senior career goals for club and country and has the most goals by a player for a single club.

2. Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo takes second place among the players with the most Ballon d’Or, after winning the award five times. He won the award in 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017 and took second place six times.  Just like Messi Ronaldo is also widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, with four European Golden Shoes, to his name.  The duo won the Ballon d’Or a combined 12 out of 13 times between 2008 and 2021.

Ronaldo has won 32 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, and the UEFA European Championship. Ronaldo holds the records for most appearances (183), goals (140), and assists (42) in the Champions League, goals in the European Championship (14), international goals (117), and international appearances by a European (191). He is one of the few players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances and has scored over 800 official senior career goals for clubs and the country.

3. Michel Platini

French football legend Michel Platini won the Ballon d’Or thrice consecutively. He took the award in 1983, 1984, and 1985. He is also regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time and One of the best midfielders of his generation.  Platini won one UEFA Euro with France, one UCL, and two Serie A league titles with Juventus.

During his career, Platini played for the club’s Nancy, Saint-Étienne, and Juventus.  He was a prolific goalscorer who won the Serie A capocannoniere award three consecutive times between 1983 and 1985 and was the top scorer of Juventus’s victorious 1984–85 European Cup campaign.

4. Johan Cruyff

Johan Cruyff takes fourth place among the players with the most Ballon d’Or, after winning it Three times in 1971, 1973, and 1974. Like many on this list, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, as well as one of the most influential figures in modern football.

The Dutch legend Cruyff led the Netherlands to the final of the 1974 FIFA World Cup and received the Golden Ball as the player of the tournament. At the club level, Cruyff started his career at Ajax, where he won eight Eredivisie titles, three European Cups, and one Intercontinental Cup. He also won the Spanish La Liga once with FC Barcelona.

5. Marco van Basten

Marco van Basten is one of the players with the most Ballon d’Or awards and one of five players to win the Ballon d’Or three or more times. The legendary footballer from the Netherlands won it back in 1988, 1989, and 1992. He is no doubt one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. Known for his close ball control, attacking intelligence, impeccable headers, and spectacular strikes and volleys.

Marco played for Ajax and AC Milan, as well as the Netherlands national team, as a striker. He won three Eredivisie titles and the Cup Winners’ Cup with Ajax, and four Serie A titles and three European Cups with Milan. With the Netherlands, Van Basten won UEFA Euro 1988 and earned the Golden Boot for scoring five goals in the tournament. He scored 300 goals in a high-profile career, despite just playing for a short period.

6. Franz Beckenbauer

Franz Beckenbauer is a German former professional footballer and one of the players with the most Ballon d’Or awards. With two  Ballon d’Or in 1972 and 1976, Franz is no doubt one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. He is a noted versatile player who started out as a midfielder but made his name as a central defender. He is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper

Franz played extensively for FC Bayern Munich, where he won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1967 and three consecutive European Cups from 1974 to 1976. He appeared 103 times for West Germany and played in three FIFA World Cups and two European Championships. He is one of three men,  to have won the World Cup as a player and as a manager; he lifted the World Cup trophy as captain in 1974 and repeated the feat as a manager in 1990.

7. De Lima Ronaldo

De Lima Ronaldo takes seventh place among the players with the most Ballon d’Or, with two of the honors to his name. He won the prestigious award in 1997 and 2002. Ronaldo is a legendary striker who brought a new dimension to the position and has been the influence for a generation of strikers that have followed. Other individual accolades on his shelf include the  FIFA World Player of the Year three times

Ronaldo started his career at Cruzeiro and moved to PSV in 1994. He joined Barcelona in 1996 for a then-world record transfer fee at 20 years old. In 1997, Inter Milan broke the world record fee to sign Ronaldo. At 21, he received the 1997 Ballon d’Or and remains the youngest recipient of the award. By the age of 23, Ronaldo had scored over 200 goals for club and country. He also won the World Cup Twice with Brazil

8. Alfredo Di Stefano

Spain’s Alfredo Di Stefano, 37, the Argentinian-born centre-forward recently in England for the Rest of the World match at Wembley. Known as the ‘White Arrow’, he is a naturalised Spaniard.

Alfredo Di Stefano is an Argentine-born professional footballer,  regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time. He is one of the footballers with the most Ballon d’Or awards, winning the award in 1957 and 1959. Stefano is best known for his achievements with Real Madrid, where he was instrumental in the club’s domination of the European Cup and La Liga during the 1950s and 1960s.

Stefano began his career at Argentina’s River Plate aged 17, in 1943. He moved to the  Millonarios of Bogotá in the Colombian league. He won six league titles during the first 12 years of his career in Argentina and Colombia. Real Madrid signed him in 1954.  He won five UCL titles for the club in addition to winning the Spanish league eight times with the club. He also won the golden boot five times in La Liga.

9. Kevin Keegan

David Coulthard 2011

Kevin Keegan is a Liverpool club legend who also played for England national team. He is one of the players with the most with the most Ballon d’Or, winning awards in 1978 and 1979. Keegan played for several professional clubs from 1968 to 1984. Having begun his career at Scunthorpe United, he moved to Liverpool in 1971 and then to Hamburger SV in 1977, enjoying great success at both clubs.

Keegan began his playing career at Scunthorpe in 1968, before Bill Shankly signed him for Liverpool where he won three First Division titles, the UEFA Cup twice, the FA Cup, and, in his final season, the European Cup. He moved to Hamburg in the summer of 1977, where he won his Ballon D’or awards. Hamburg won the Bundesliga title in 1978–79 and reached the 1980 European Cup Final.

10. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

Concluding the list of the top 10 players with the most Ballon d’Or awards in football history,  an FC Bayern Munich and German legend Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. He won the Ballon d’Or award twice. His first award winner was in 1980 and the second was in 1981. He is considered by many the greatest of all time and made substantial contributions to the successes of the club and the German national football team.

As a player, Rummenigge had his greatest career success with Bayern Munich, where he won the Intercontinental Cup, two European Cups, as well as two league titles and two domestic cups.  He was a member of the West Germany national team, which won the 1980 European Championship and finished runner-up in the 1982 FIFA World Cup and at the 1986 World Cup.

Summary

Here is a recap of the top 10 players with the most Ballon d’Or awards in football history.

1. Lionel Messi – 7
2. Cristiano Ronaldo – 5
3. Michel Platini – 3
4. Johan Cruyff – 3
5. Marco van Basten – 3
6. Franz Beckenbauer – 2
7. De Lima Ronaldo – 2
8. Alfredo Di Stefano  – 2
9. Kevin Keegan – 2
10. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge – 2