The Ballon d'Or's history is steeped in controversy over stars who were overlooked when it was clear that they deserved their moment of glory
(Image credit: Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
The Ballon d'Or means nothing. It is a popularity contest, first and foremost: the voters have different reasons for picking their favourites and no one is unanimously going to agree on one outright winner.
Having said that, there are obvious robberies down the years when it comes to this gong – and we're not just referring to the fact that Pele and Maradona were never eligible as non-Europeans. The BDO has a long list of winners and not all of them have been particularly fair.
So here are the top 10 most contentious wins ever and the arguments for who should have been stood on the stage making a gushing acceptance speech. How many do you agree with?
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10. 2006: Gianluigi Buffon should have won over Fabio Cannavaro
Gianluigi Buffon was in superb form in 2006 (Image credit: Getty)
2006 was a difficult oeuvre for the Ballon d’Or. The most captivating player at the World Cup planted his head in the chest of an opponent on the biggest stage of all and walked down the Olympiastadion tunnel that night in disgrace, never to play football again.
Juventus’s Calciopoli nightmare, meanwhile, limited the number of stars who could feasibly win the BDO from Italy’s triumphant – yet somewhat dull – squad, as the domestic scene was tainted despite international glory. Fabio Cannavaro led the mean defence and jumped ship to Real Madrid, making him the prime candidate: but Gigi Buffon was arguably far more influential for the Azzurri and also won a title with the red-faced Juve.
The difference? The keeper stayed with the Old Lady through their relegation, making it a difficult choice for voters to plump for a second-tier player as the best in the world. The level that Buffon played at that year begs the question, though: has a goalkeeper ever delivered more integral performances for club and country in the modern age?
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9. 1960: Ferenc Puskas should have won over Luis Suarez
He never won a Puskas award either (Image credit: PA)
Because some things never change, Barcelona won the 1959/60 Spanish title, while bitter rivals Real Madrid lifted the European Cup. Barça talisman Luis Suarez was awarded the 1960 Ballon d’Or at the end of that season for his displays – but Los Blancos had a much stronger case for the gong.
Not only did Ferenc Puskas net 47 goals in 36 appearances in the 59/60 season, he also scored four goals (that’s insane) in the European Cup final, as Real Madrid battered Eintracht Frankfurt on the biggest stage of all. Barcelona only won the title on head-to-heads in 1960, too: Puskas finished second in the league and second in the Ballon d’Or voting to his La Liga rival.
8. 2001: Oliver Kahn or Raul should have won over Michael Owen
Oliver Kahn in the 2002 World Cup final (Image credit: Bongarts/Getty Images)
Let’s keep this balanced – at least as much as we can. Michael Owen’s 2001 Ballon d’Or is one of the most derided award results in the history of football for a number of reasons: the young England striker wasn’t even playing Champions League football that season, didn’t win a league title and only scored 16 league goals all campaign.
Equally, there wasn’t that much competition for the Ballon d’Or. If you were voting purely from achievements, Owen completed a unique haul with Liverpool and was their best player. That justifies his title somewhat – but where the controversy comes is that some say he never had the ability to be crowned the best player on Earth.
Raul and Oliver Kahn both had a claim to that. The former won La Liga, the latter the Champions League; both were influential for their sides but not standout cases for the award. Depending on how irate you are that Owen got the gong, either would have been a good choice.
7. 1956: Alfredo Di Stefano should have won over Stanley Matthews
Alfredo di Stefano never won a Ballon d'Or (Image credit: PA)
Suggesting that Sir Stanley Matthews – general English hero, inaugural Ballon d’Or hero and the only footballer to ever be knighted before hanging up his boots – didn’t deserve his glory is about as unpatriotic as punching a bulldog and weeing in a teapot. And yet…
Blackpool’s 1955/56 season was good – but not spectacular. Matthews was beyond his peak by then and the award was a John Wayne-in-True Grit-style gift to honour the magnificent career that he’d had already rather than the stunning calendar year behind him. Alfredo Di Stefano, meanwhile, was in his wondrous prime, leading Real Madrid to one of several European Cups.
ADS winning the first BDO would have been significant, too. This was an award that would forever be entangled with European Cup success, of course – but in the early days of this award, non-Europeans weren’t eligible. Di Stefano became a naturalised Spanish citizen of October that year – and would have been a bridge between the old era and the modern.
6. 2018: Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohamed Salah or Antoine Griezmann should have won over Luka Modric
Antoine Griezmann had a remarkable 2018 (Image credit: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
It seems rather cruel to say that after years of the tiring Messi/Ronaldo dominance, finally giving the award to someone else was a mistake. There was never going to be another like them – and giving it to Luka Modric, someone completely different, was refreshing. But also… wrong.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored 44 goals in as many games en route to a third consecutive Champions League title in which he was the indisputable superstar in the side – however influential Modric was to that side. Mohamed Salah may have lost the final that season, meanwhile, but dragged an unfancied Liverpool side to the showpiece and scored an unprecedented (back then, anyway) 32 Premier League goals in just 36 games.
Both of them had a shout – as did Antoine Griezmann, as the fulcrum of France’s second World Cup-winning side and the heart of Atletico Madrid’s Europa League winners, who looking back, are arguably the strongest winners of the competition ever. Modric had a great season, of course… but has it gone down in history?
5. 2019: Virgil van Dijk should have won over Lionel Messi
Virgil van Dijk was the best defender on Earth for a little while (Image credit: Getty)
There was never a better opportunity for a centre-back to win the Ballon d’Or. Not since Fabio Cannavaro had a defender stood atop of the world – and Virgil van Dijk was so obviously the best centre-back in the world at that point.
A Champions League title was his clear standout achievement (had he won the inaugural Nations League final that year, it may have helped, too), while Liverpool headed into 2019/20 like a freight train. If this is an award for the most outstanding footballer on the planet, there simply was no other player at his level of dominance. Alas, the voters decided otherwise.
2019 was a fine year for Messi, scooping yet another league title at Barca. But a Champions League exit at the hands of Roma “rising from their ruins” was hardly befitting of a BDO recipient. Surely Messi had enough Golden Balls in his cabinet by now!?
4. 2013: Franck Ribery should have won over Cristiano Ronaldo
Franck Ribery was overlooked in 2013 (Image credit: Getty)
2013 was, quite simply, the year of Bayern Munich. And no one was Bayern Munich in 2013 like Franck Ribery.
The Bavarians hoovered up a treble under Jupp Heynckes, clinching a European title at Wembley at the expense of bitter rivals Borussia Dortmund – but that was just a fraction of what they achieved, with a whopping 30 records smashed in German football. Ribery was central to the success: sure, he may have scored plenty fewer than Ronaldo or Messi but he actually registered more assists.
By now, we were firmly in the age of the statistic, though: the GOAT axis of the big two had changed the game with numbers others couldn’t match – and perhaps Ribery was a victim of that. But in that majestic campaign, his influence couldn’t be measured purely on the page.
3. 2010: Wesley Sneijder should have won over Lionel Messi
Wesley Sneijder's 2010 is still reminisced about today: is Messi's? (Image credit: Getty)
Still to this day, Wesley Sneijder’s 2010 is the stuff of legends. Were it not for an outstretched leg from Iker Casillas in the World Cup final, perhaps the playmaker would have completed an iconic sweep of four trophies.
Sneijder was the gem, the genius and the poster-boy of Jose Mourinho’s Treble-winning Inter Milan side – assuming of course Jose wasn't the poster-boy himself – but while a World Cup final loss didn’t matter when it came to Luka Modric winning the 2018 award, it counted against the Dutchman. The podium that year belonged to La Masia, with Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi standing proud, crowned the three best players on Earth.
Yes, Leo had an unbelievable 12 months statistically. But Sneijder must have felt a little aggrieved looking at that trio… especially when he’d won a Champions League at the expense of all three of them and Messi hadn’t beaten him in the World Cup final. It still rankles for some fans.
2. 2003/2004: Thierry Henry should have won over Pavel Nedved/Andriy Shevchenko
Thierry Henry was a force of nature in the early noughties (Image credit: Getty Images)
Thierry Henry lost the Champions League and World Cup finals in 2006: had he lifted both, he absolutely would have given his rightful title of the Ballon d’Or winner of that year. But frankly, how he’d never won one sooner is one of the biggest crimes in noughties football.
In 2003 and 2004, Henry showed both shades of his psyche; in 2002/03, he registered a still-unbeaten 20 Premier League assists, all from open play, while the following campaign, he smashed 30 goals in an Invincible Arsenal term. Yet in both instances, the BDO was handed out to admittedly excellent Serie A superstars, Pavel Nedved and Andriy Shevchenko respectively.
Both players were silky and brilliant in Scudetto-winning campaigns but neither tasted Champions League glory. It’s simply a matter of opinion as to whether you felt they were better individually than Henry…
1. 2020/2021: Robert Lewandowski should have been given his flowers
Robert Lewandowski was unstoppable for Bayern during lockdown (Image credit: Getty)
2021 wasn’t exactly a vintage year for Lionel Messi: a single Copa Del Rey to show for his final Barcelona season before a teary move to PSG, where he struggled in his first season. Of course, a Copa America in between – his first international trophy – made him a shoo-in for the award (despite Angel Di Maria arguably being more integral to that win).
Robert Lewandowski has a right to feel a little overlooked, considering he scored 41 Bundesliga goals that season in another stunning Bayern campaign, beating the long-held record of Gerd Muller, which many thought would never be eclipsed. But really, even now, the poaching Pole’s real grievance isn’t with Messi at all or the voters who denied him. It’s with France Football for binning off the award when it was blatantly his and only his.
Sure, he should’ve won in 2021 against Messi. But for the BDO to be completely cancelled in 2020 when he was easily the most dominant and downright inevitable force on the planet, leading Bayern to six trophies? It was outrageous. Luckily FourFourTwo held its own award for the best player in the world. We recognised you, Rob.
Mark White has been at on FourFourTwo since joining in January 2020, first as a staff writer before becoming content editor in 2023. An encyclopedia of football shirts and boots knowledge – both past and present – Mark has also represented FFT at both FA Cup and League Cup finals (though didn't receive a winners' medal on either occasion) and has written pieces for the mag ranging on subjects from Bobby Robson's season at Barcelona to Robinho's career. He has written cover features for the mag on Mikel Arteta and Martin Odegaard, and is assisted by his cat, Rosie, who has interned for the brand since lockdown.
