Home > Sports > List > Football > Resources > Winners > Awards > Player of the Year (FIFA)

FIFA World Player of the Year (Men)

The FIFA World Player of the Year award is given annually to the football player who is thought to be the best in the world. Here are the award winners since 1991. This award From 2010 until 2015, this award was merged with the Ballon d'Or award.

Since 2004 the voting process is based on a shortlist of 35 players produced by FIFA, from which team captains, national team managers and select journalists vote for the winner.

From 2010 until 2015, the FIFA player of the year award was merged with the Ballon d'Or and called the FIFA Ballon d'Or. Compare this list to the player of the year according to World Soccer magazine, and also the female player of the year.

Including the FIFA Ballon d'Or (years 2010-2015), Lionel Messi has won the award six times, with Cristiano Ronaldo having won it five times.

Statue of Cristiano Ronaldo in the harbour of his hometown Funchal, Madeira

The 2016 and 2017 winner of the FIFA World Player of the Year winner was Cristiano Ronaldo, who also won the Ballon d'Or for the same periods. In 2018 he failed to win the hat-trick, polling second behind Croatian Luka Modrić. In 2022, Messi won the award for the 7th time.

Related Pages

• See also the list of the female FIFA player of the year.
• List of winners of the Ballon d'Or award
• Comparison of three player of the year awards
• Football Awards Lists
• More Soccer Lists
• More sporting lists

Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.

Old Comments

Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which is interesting to read, and may answer some of your questions.

• CR7 IS THE WORLD BEST PLAYER FOR THIS AWARD IN REAL LIFE, I ALSO LOVE MESSI BUT CR7 HAS DONE MORE THEN MESSI (David W. Grualee, 2014)
• CR7 IS NOT THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD. SORRY YOU ARE DEAD WRONG. EVEN CR7 IS A MESSI FAN. AFTER TODAY's GOAL TO ATLETICO MADRID IS IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANYONE NOT TO VOTE FOR MESSI. MESSI GETS IT DONE TIME AND TIME AGAIN. (Julio Cee, 2020)
• I'd like to see Messi play in a different country on a different team and see if he performs as he does on Barcelona (Lil billy, 2020)
• What has he done, Messi collected it 4 times consecutively. Soh mi. O je wa ke ball. Fuad Oluwaniyi (2019)
• This year it is going to be Ibrahimovich or Messi. Not Ronaldo, too much ego. Yush (2013)
• Ronaldo won in the year you made that comment ( 2014 ) and the year i made this comment (2015). So haha . RicardoSousa kashlord (2014)
• Ronaldo has scored 44 goals this season and is the leading scorer in all competitions I highly doubt that. Unkown Yush (2016)
• Ego is not part of the criteria it is for the best PLAYER OF THE YEAR NOT PERSONALITY, FFS. Common sense Yush (2014)
• why they don't have separate awards for mid fielder defender goal keeper strikers why not they all provided with the proper stage to show their potential in there field and skill according to their category they should start something new fifa you should do something to motivate the others players and make the football more interesting when the rest of the players want to win there fifa player award they do great goal keeping defending mid fielding they will make football more faster then ever and enjoyable, Saif ur rehman (2014)
• You don't really need a separate section for the different positions in the best players award, Manuel Neuer, the german goalkeeper, came close to winning the ballon d'Or just recently, if the player is good enough, Fifa will recognize it and give them the award. That One Guy saif ur rehman (2015)
• You where for sure a defender when you played football to have that statement...
  the hardest thing to do on a footballfield is to score a goal,and Strikers are valued more because of their abilities, thats why they are the most expensive players. Kalleruo.tarzel saif ur rehman (2014)
• No, the hardest thing to do is stop goals. BJ Kalleruo.tarzel (2015)
• You are wrong, the hardest thing to do is to stop a shot. Keepers are under appreciated. they can stop soccer balls hurtling toward them through the air, they also act as the general of the team, organizing and commanding the players. without them or the defenders and midfielders, the strikers would even be able to get the ball to shoot. strikers might do some good stuff when they score, but 3/4 the time they miss and when they dont have the ball, they just walk around. That One Guy Kalleruo.tarzel (2015)
• That's not correct - every person on earth specializes in some skill in a specific area or field & each person's pay is Directly proportional to the scarcity of their specialization... For example the reason Heart surgeons earn more than janitors is b/c heart surgeon is an extremely scarce skill set... The same rules apply to professional sports. Goaltenders are very important - obviously, but the reason the Very top of the pay scale is populated by offensive players is b/c their skill set is SO rare there are only a handful at the level of a Messi & a Ronaldo so they make the most $$$ Goaltenders are rare in the population but inside the game their skill set is no where near as rare as a top striker or mid fielder.... James Thomas That One Guy (2015)
• Ronaldo is the greatest out of all them the Brazilian of course. Shared (2013)
• My favorite player is Messi and I like ibrahamovic but I gotta say Christiano Ranaldo even though I hate him. Ugh! Kian (2014)
• There is a mistake Andrei Shevchenko was the winner in 2004. Joseph Azar (2016)
• messi is the best of all time and will always be the best even after he retires. Kashlord (2014)
• this is rediculous. Messy will have 10 inthe end of his career. Opli (2013)
• Let messi prove it self like ronaldo as a big play any were goes he can get BALLON D'OR /england to spain. Adino opli (2015)
• Messi is the best player in history. He will continue to break records and amaze fans. Julio Cee (2020)
• LM10 IS THE WORLD BEST PLAYER EVER HAVE SEEN IN MY LIFE, I ALSO LOVE CR7 BUT MESSI HAS DONE MORE THAN RONALDO. Jamiu Abolore (2019)
• Messi just won it 6th time, now leads Cristiano Ronaldo.. LOL Till the last moment of announcement i thought van dijk would win it.. Ashutosh Ople (2019)
• soccer so white and so fixed. last 10 best players consist of 2 white players! rigged. invisible_bot (2018)
• FIFA is just cheating!!Ronaldo did a lot for his teams i.e. real madrid and portugal and got the ballon d'or for it.But this year he didnt do anything good but yet he got the FIFA best player award!!Previous year messi did some good things for his teams but not as good as Ronaldo so he didnt win the ballon d'or but this year he is playing damn good !! His hattrick against ecuador a few days back led argentina to qualify for the Russian world cup next year.And he has scored most goals this season but yet he didnt get the Fifa best player award!!.So,there is no doubt that stupid FIFA is just cheating the LEO fans!! Md Anas (2017)
• 2004 is not Ronaldinho. Shevchenko has won Golden Balloon in 2004. Евгений Нескажу (2016)
• Do you know you must actually win something to be consider a contender, Barcelona & Man utd will win nothing , Ronaldo again! Rod (2016)
• The method used to pick world footballer is biased towards certain players. Small wonder we have no goalkeeper's as world best the selection process seems to exclude them. Using this method we will never have a goalkeeper win world player. I am urging FIFA to relook the criteria the use we can't have two players as the best for a decade. Categories the awards than have one. Maybe then pick from the categories the best of all. David Siame Katambalile (2016)
• this list is terrible!!! lot of errors!!! Ajinkya Khalwadekar (2016)
• ? 2005 winner was Pavel Nedvěd. Unkown (2016)
• No 2005 was Ronaldinho. Velocity Unkown (2016)
• as you can see previous winners besides messi and cr7 are winning because they perform in big tournament either or their country winning big tournament. so since Portugal won the 2016 Euro tournament i believe CR7 will win FIFA football player of the year..... Inthasone Khounborine (2016)
• In 2003, Paul Nedved won Ballon D'or. Marius (2016)
• Yes Ballon D'or was different from fifa player of the year until it emerged in 2010. now it has been separated. lots of players won Ballon d'or but didn't win the fifa player of the year awards. Velocity Marius (2016)
• Zidane? it should be Nedved for 2003. Rich Incognito (2016)
• I cant believe maradonna never won the ballon d' or. James Soria (2015)
• Luis suarez should win this year he has most goals and most participations in goals and has a lot of success in world cups hes good. James Soria (2015)
• Uruguay our from Copa No way for Luis suarez only CR.Sd James Soria (2016)
• Did Michael Owen not win the ballon d'or in 2001 not luis Figo. Darragh (2015)
• 1994 winner is wrong. It was Hristo Stoichkov who won that year. Mark (2015)
• Kamor (2015)
  u are all wrong...the best ever is RONALDINHO✌
• 1994 - Stoichkov.Miro (2015) - ed. Yes, Stoichkov won the Ballon d'Or European Footballer of the Year. That is a different award
• nedved won in 2003, not zidane .. Aru10 (2015)
• you have listed Zinedine Zidane 3 times (1998,2000,2003) whereas zizou received Ballon d'Or only once in 1998... Same goes for Ronaldinho he won Ballon d'Or in year 2005 and you have listed 2004 and 2005... Tilak (2015).
• Although they are the legendary players but you cannot mess up with the Ballon d'Or title..
• Many visitors are getting confused as this award is often confused with the now defunct Ballon d'Or (European Footballer of the year) which was awarded from 1956 until 2009, which was merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year to create the FIFA Ballon d'Or. Rob Admin (2015)
• this list is wrong. Ronaldinho only won it in 05 shevshenko won it in 04, owen won it in 2001. Tapiwa (2015)
• Shevshenko never won the fifa world player of the year. he only won the ballon d'or which was a different award until it merged with fifa best player of the year in 2010. Velocity tapiwa (2016)
• It's a shame 1990 not there. ..gazza name would be there. .... Lcb (2015)
• 1994 is Hristo Stoitchkov, not Romario. Patkata (2015)
• Messi is the KING in football.this yr best player gos to MESSI ,if messi win this yr ,he is the 5 star best player of the yr.JAH BLESS U MESSI AND TO THOES WHO SUPPORT MESSI. Daniel Abraham (2015)
• This year messi will win his fifth Ballon'Or 2015.Jadhaan whittaker (2015)
• where is SHEVA? 2004. Andriy Shevchenko (2015) - Andriy Shevchenko won the 2004 Ballon d'Or, which was just for European players at the time. It is different from the FIFA list above, which combined with the Ballon d'Or in 2010. See the Ballon d'Or list.
• No it was not only for euopean players in 2004. check your facts mate - Velocity Rob (2016) - ed. From 1995 to 2007, the Ballon d'Or (not the FIFA award list here) was only for players at European clubs. They did not have to be born in Europe, just had to be playing there.
• in 2001 michael owen was the winner. Vegis (2015) - ed. Michael Owen won the World Soccer Player of the Year in 2001, which is a different award.
• c-ronaldo has 10 goals & 10 goals messi in champions legue why ronaldo exceed messi in la liga goals ,SO RONALDO STILL HAS THE NEXT WORLD BEST. Adino (2015)
• Messi god of fifa . Top scorer in uefa all over the time top scorer in this year again . 4 Ballon D'Or ., la liga champion, copa del rey champion, one left uefa champion. Chahat Sharma (2015)
• In one word just Harry Kane.Mark music (2015)
• Paul Pogba in the cooking... Watch the space. But so far, KING LIONEL MESSI. S Kgomo (2015)
• 2001 was Michael Owen..... you got it wrong very wrong. Wrong (2014) - ed. The list is for the FIFA World Player of the Year, which was won by Luís Figo in 2001. Michael Owen won the Ballon d'Or in 2001. The two awards were merged in 2010 for a short time..
• this year will be for Ribery if he make France qualify for world cup. Omoda James (2013)
• This is year goes to Razvan Cocis from Romania ! Ricky (2013)
• There no doubt that messi will win the ballon de oro because he won barcelona 3 titles in 2015. Dani Flores (2015)
• Messi is better than Ronaldo because Messi won the Ballon d'or 4 times in a row. Johann Mathews George Dani Flores (2015)
• messi is the best in the way e play show you is not a griding man and look at the world cup he went to final and he is the best performer in the last world cup and come to cup america is also the best perfomer ther is no body to suport him that is why he wanna get retired from the country side in my own look . fifa world cup and euro cup and cup america messi perform more than ronaldo then in my own look messi deserve the next ballon d `or. Swagg Johann Mathews George (2016)