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There are three awards given annually for the best male football player of the year, the FIFA World Player of the Year, the Ballon d'Or award and the World Soccer Player of the Year. These awards are presented by three different bodies, FIFA, France Football and World Soccer respectively.

Here is a comparison of the winners of the best male football player for each year that all three have been awarded. Only the winners of the awards since 1991 are shown, as this is when the FIFA award was first given. Since all these awards have been given, 17 times (out of 26) the same player has won all three awards.

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Between 2010 and 2015, the FIFA player of the year award was merged with the Ballon d'Or, creating a new award called the FIFA Ballon d'Or. The recipients of the joint FIFA Ballon d'Or are now considered as winners of both awards. After 2015, the awards are awarded separately again.

While the FIFA World Player of the Year and World Soccer Player of the Year awards have always been open to players from all around the world, the Ballon d'Or was only for European players up to 1994, and between 1995 and 2006 players from around the world were eligible though only if they played football in Europe.

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Related Pages

• See each of these lists in full: FIFA Player of the year, World Soccer player of the year and the Ballon d'Or award
• See also the list of the female FIFA player of the year.
• Football Awards Lists
• More Soccer Winners Lists
• More sporting lists