How the Ballon d'Or Winner Is Actually Chosen

The short answer

The Ballon d'Or is not decided by statistics, algorithms or a fan vote. It is decided by a ballot. An international jury of specialized football journalists, with one representative per country, ranks ten players from a 30-name shortlist, and the points from every ballot are added together. The player with the highest total wins the trophy.

For the men's award, the jury is drawn from the top 100 nations in the FIFA world ranking; for the women's award, from the top 50. Each first-place vote is worth 15 points, and the scale steps down to a single point for tenth place. If two players finish level, the tie is broken by counting first-place votes, then second-place votes, and so on down the ballot.

Who actually votes

Only specialized football journalists vote for the Ballon d'Or in its current format. Each eligible country gets exactly one juror: one hundred journalists for the men's trophy and fifty for the women's trophy. The FIFA ranking used to pick the eligible countries is the one in force when the nominee lists are published.

National team coaches and captains do not vote in this award. That distinguishes it from FIFA's own prize, The Best, where coaches, captains, journalists and fans all hold a share of the vote. Limiting each country to one journalist also keeps the largest football markets from overwhelming smaller ones: Brazil and Bangladesh each have a single voice of equal weight.

The jurors' choices are not secret. Once the trophy is handed over, the organizers publish the full standings together with every individual ballot, so readers can see exactly which journalist ranked which player and where. That public paper trail is part of why the award's results are debated so intensely each year.

How the 30-name shortlist is built

Before any ballot is cast, someone has to decide who the candidates are. The 30-player shortlist is drawn up by the editorial staff of France Football, the magazine that created the award, together with the editorial staff of L'Equipe, at least one juror from the previous edition, and ambassadors appointed by UEFA, which co-organizes the ceremony.

Jurors can only vote for players on that list, so the shortlist stage quietly shapes the outcome. A player who is omitted cannot win, no matter how many journalists might have ranked them first.

The points system, step by step

Each juror receives the 30-name shortlist and names ten players in descending order of merit. The ranking on each ballot converts into points on a fixed scale, and the organizers then sum every ballot to produce the final standings. The full voting results, including how each journalist voted, are published after the ceremony, which makes the process unusually transparent for an award of this profile.

Because first place is worth more than double second place, a ballot's top choice carries real weight, and a player who is everyone's second favourite can still lose to a player who divides opinion but collects more first-place votes.

1st place: 15 points
2nd place: 12 points
3rd place: 10 points
4th place: 8 points
5th place: 7 points
6th place: 5 points
7th and 8th places: 4 and 3 points
9th and 10th places: 2 points and 1 point

The three official criteria

Jurors are not simply told to pick the best player. The regulations give them three criteria, applied in a fixed order of importance. First comes individual performance: decisive contributions and impressive character on the pitch. Second comes team performance and achievements, meaning trophies and collective success with club and country. Third comes class and fair play: sportsmanship and conduct.

The ordering matters. Individual brilliance outranks the medal collection, which is why a player from a less successful team can still win if their personal season was extraordinary.

A season, not a calendar year

For most of its history the Ballon d'Or judged performances across a calendar year. That changed with the 2022 edition: the award now covers a football season, roughly August to July, rather than January to December. The shift aligned the judging period with the rhythm of the club game, so a full league and Champions League campaign sits inside one voting cycle instead of being split across two.

The change also settled a long-standing awkwardness: under the calendar-year system, a major summer tournament could land at the very start of one voting year and be half forgotten by the time ballots were cast at the end of it. Judging a season keeps each campaign, from the first league match to the European final, intact as one body of work.

What happens when points are tied

If two or more players finish with the same total, the regulations break the tie by countback: the player with more first-place votes wins. If that does not separate them, second-place votes are compared, then third-place votes, continuing down the ballot until a difference appears.

A short history of the award

France Football magazine created the Ballon d'Or in 1956, and the first winner was England winger Sir Stanley Matthews. From 2010 to 2015 the award was merged with FIFA's World Player of the Year to create the FIFA Ballon d'Or, before the partnership ended in 2016 and the two prizes separated again. A women's award, the Ballon d'Or Feminin, was added in 2018, with Norway's Ada Hegerberg its first winner.

The 2020 edition was not awarded because of the disruption the COVID-19 pandemic caused to the football calendar, the only year the trophy has been skipped. Since 2024, UEFA has co-organized the gala with France Football, which keeps control of the voting system and the name. In 2026 the award marked its 70th anniversary, seven decades after Matthews received the first one.

The other trophies awarded the same night

The ceremony hands out far more than the two main prizes. The Kopa Trophy goes to the best player under 21 and is named after Raymond Kopa, the first French winner of the Ballon d'Or. The Yashin Trophy honours the best goalkeeper, named after Lev Yashin, still the only goalkeeper ever to win the main award, back in 1963.

The Gerd Muller Trophy rewards the season's top scorer, the Club of the Year awards recognize the most successful teams, the Johan Cruyff Trophy honours the best coach, and the Socrates Award, presented with Peace and Sport, recognizes solidarity and humanitarian work by players.

Sources

FAQ

Who won the first Ballon d'Or?

England winger Sir Stanley Matthews won the inaugural award in 1956, when it was created by France Football magazine.

Can a goalkeeper or defender win the Ballon d'Or?

Yes. The award is open to every position. Goalkeeper Lev Yashin won it in 1963 and remains the only keeper to do so, while defender Fabio Cannavaro won in 2006.

Do players, coaches or fans vote?

Not for the Ballon d'Or. In the current format only specialized journalists vote, one per eligible country. FIFA's own award, The Best, is the one that gives coaches, captains and fans a share of the vote.

Is the award based on a calendar year?

No. Since the 2022 edition the Ballon d'Or has judged a full football season, roughly August to July, rather than January to December.

Why was there no winner in 2020?

The organizers cancelled the 2020 edition because the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the football season so heavily that a fair vote was judged impossible.

About the Author

Written by the doyouknow.app editorial team with AI-assisted research and drafting, and checked against the sources listed above. Spotted an error? Email hello@doyouknow.app and we will correct it.

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