Most Ballon d'Or Awards Won

Lionel Messi holds the record for the most Ballon d’Or awards, with eight, won between 2009 and 2023. Cristiano Ronaldo is second with five, so the two great rivals of the modern game have shared 13 of the awards between them, a stretch of dominance the prize had never seen before.

The Ballon d’Or, presented each year by France Football, is football’s most coveted individual honor, going to the player judged the best in the world. For most of its history, winning it twice was the mark of an all-time great, and no one had won it more than three times. Then two players redrew the map entirely. Here is the full leaderboard of Ballon d’Or winners and how Messi and Ronaldo reshaped it. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record holder: Lionel Messi and eight awards

Messi won his first Ballon d’Or in 2009 and his eighth in 2023, a span of nearly 15 years at the very top. His run included four in a row from 2009 to 2012, a feat no one else has managed, and later victories tied to club success at Barcelona and a World Cup triumph with Argentina. Eight awards is more than double the old record of three, a measure of how far he pushed the standard.

The gap to the rest of history is enormous. Before Messi, no player had won more than three, and only his rival Ronaldo has since climbed beyond that mark.

The full leaderboard of Ballon d’Or winners

The table below ranks the players with the most Ballon d’Or awards. Active players are noted.

Rank	Awards	Player	Years
1	8	Lionel Messi*	2009-2023
2	5	Cristiano Ronaldo*	2008-2017
3	3	Michel Platini	1983-1985
3	3	Johan Cruyff	1971-1974
3	3	Marco van Basten	1988-1992
6	2	Franz Beckenbauer	1972-1976
6	2	Alfredo Di Stefano	1957-1959
6	2	Ronaldo Nazario	1997-2002
6	2	Kevin Keegan	1978-1979
6	2	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	1980-1981

*Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo remain active, though both now play outside Europe, making further awards unlikely.

Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten share third with three each, the old benchmark for greatness. The group on two reads like a roll call of football history, from Alfredo Di Stefano and Franz Beckenbauer to the Brazilian Ronaldo Nazario.

Cristiano Ronaldo and the great rivalry

Cristiano Ronaldo’s five awards, spread from 2008 to 2017, would headline almost any other era. His duel with Messi defined more than a decade of football, with one of the two winning the prize in every year from 2008 to 2017 and again from 2019 to 2021. Their scoring feats also top our most Champions League goals leaderboard, and Ronaldo’s silverware features on our most Champions League titles by a player ranking.

How the award has changed

The Ballon d’Or began in 1956 as a prize for European players only, expanded to any player at a European club, and became a fully global award in the modern era. That evolution means older winners like Di Stefano competed under narrower rules than today’s players. What has not changed is the prestige, which is why the Messi and Ronaldo totals feel so far beyond the field. The international stage that helped decide several recent awards is charted on our most World Cup goals leaderboard.

Why the record matters

The Ballon d’Or rewards a full year of excellence across club and country, judged by voters worldwide, which makes winning it repeatedly extraordinarily hard. Messi’s eight and Ronaldo’s five turned a prize that once rarely went to the same player twice into a two-man contest for more than a decade.

The short version: Lionel Messi holds the Ballon d’Or record with eight awards, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s five, with the two rivals sharing 13 in all. Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten follow on three. As of the 2025 season, no other active player is close to the top of the list.