Ballon d'Or Voting
The Ballon d'Or is an annual football award presented by France Football to the best male and female players in the world. Journalists from the top-ranked member nations vote on winner, and the player with most points win.
Starting in 2022, the voters are limited to the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings for men and the top 50 nations from the women's rankings. Each journalist makes their top five picks from a 30-person shortlist, with each ranking earning a different points value/number of votes.
- First: Six points
- Second: Four points
- Third: Three points
- Fourth: Two points
- Fifth: One point
The voting assessment criteria was updated in 2022 to focus on three main factors. The primary criteria is the player's individual performance in the previous European season of August to July, no longer by calendar year, and no longer factoring career success at all. The other factors considered are team success during the previous season, as well as player behavior and fair play.
If there's an unlikely tie at the top, the player with the most first-place votes will win the Ballon d'Or.
See a list of all winners for the men and women.
Previous Voting Systems
The voting system to determine the Ballon d'Or winners has changed over time.
At first, the winner of the Ballon d'Or was selected by a panel of 16 sports journalists, one from each member country of UEFA. At the time the award was called the European Footballer of the Year.
In 1995, the Ballon d'Or was expanded to include all players of any origin that have been active at European clubs. The award became a global prize in 2007 with all professional footballers from clubs around the world being eligible. At the same time, the voting pool was expanded to include journalists from outside UEFA countries.
Up until 2006, the Ballon d'Or was based exclusively on voting by football journalists. In 2006, there were 52 voters, each picking five players in order, and each recieving 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 point each.
From 2007 until 2015, additionally, coaches and captains of national teams were also given the right to vote. In 2016 it reverted to just journalists again.
Forexample, in 2012, there were three voters for each FIFA member federation, one journalist and the coaches and captain of the national men's team, each voting for three players (5, 3 and 1 point each)
In 2016 there were 173 voters, each voting for three players (5, 3 and 1 point each)
Related Pages
- Ballon d'Or Trophy Design
- Ballon d'Or History
- Ballon d'Or Trivia
- Ballon d'Or Quiz
- Ballon d'Or Home
- Football Awards Lists
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