SP. Yashin between the sticks, Cannavaro at the back, Messi in Attack – Who has won the Ballon d’Or in each position?

• Many different positions have won the Ballon d’Or.
• Just one goalkeeper and two defenders have claimed the prize.
• Lionel Messi the most popular winner of the award with eight Ballon d’Ors.

The Ballon d’Or is the most prestigious individual award in football. It was originally exclusively awarded to players of European origin playing in Europe before the eligibility rules changed in 1995. The voting process initially included only sports journalists, and that has been the case since 2016 after changing again, before the process was altered in 2007 to include professional players, and the captains and managers of national teams.

The award has been criticised many times, as some believe the award to be a popularity contest, whilst others point to the bias in favour of attacking players. Those critiques certainly have some weight behind them, particularly the latter, as 58 of the 68 total awards have been awarded to forwards.

With that in mind, here is a a rundown of all the players to have won the Ballon d’Or sorted by position.

Goalkeeper

Lev Yashin stands alone

Often considered to be one of the world’s greatest goalkeepers, Lev Yashin is the only goalkeeper to have won the Ballon d’Or. Yashin was a revolutionary goalkeeper for the time, which is fitting considering that he played for the Soviet Union, and he would often organise his defense in front of him. He also started the practice of coming off his line to meet crosses, and he would rush out to meet on-rushing attackers which was virtually unheard of at the time.

Yashin began playing for Dynamo Moscow in 1950 after he impressed for the football team at the factory he worked at. His career started slowly as he played understudy to another great Soviet goalkeeper, Alexei Khomich, but Yashin also played for the Dynamo Moscow Ice Hockey team, helping the side win the 1952-53 Soviet Union Cup.

He quit playing Ice Hockey after this season to focus on playing football and eventually became one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, helping Dynamo to win the USSR Championship five times and the Soviet Cup three times. He was also fairly successful at the international level, playing in three World Cups and winning the gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics. The most recent goalkeeper to be nominated for the award was Manuel Neuer in 2014 when he finished third.

Defenders

Beckenbauer and Cannavaro in a league of their own

Take the number of goalkeepers who have won the Ballon d’Or, double it, and that is the number of defenders who have won the Ballon d’Or. Franz Beckenbauer was the first defender to win the award, doing so in 1972.

Beckenbauer was also a revolutionary player in his position, as he came to define the sweeper role during his playing career. He would combine his defensive duties with offensive abilities, as his strong tackling and good reading of the game were equal to his long-range passing and marauding runs with the ball.

At club level, Beckenbauer became a legend for Bayern Munich. They won the Bundesliga four times, the DFB-Pokal four times, and the European Cup three times. Beckenbauer’s contributions to his club’s victory in 1972, and to Germany’s triumph in that year’s European Championship, won him his first Ballon d’Or. He would win his second Ballon d’Or in 1976.

Fabio Cannavaro is the second defender to win the Ballon d’Or. The Italian won the award in 2006 after winning the World Cup with Italy and being nicknamed ‘The Berlin Wall’. Italy kept five clean sheets and only conceded two goals in the entire tournament as Cannavaro captained Italy to victory. He was also part of the 2005-06 Juventus team that had finished 1st in Serie A that season, 15 points ahead of second place and only conceding 24 goals, but they were relegated to Serie B amid the Calciopoli scandal.

Platini, Zidane, Modric and many more

Not many midfielders have won the Ballon d’Or, with the winners being a mix of more offensively minded attacking-midfielders and defensively focused midfielders. The first was Josef Masopust, a Czechoslovakian midfielder who spent the majority of his career at Dukla Prague. He won the award in 1962 after helping Czechoslovakia finish second in the 1962 World Cup, losing to Brazil who won their 2nd title in a row. Pele named him as one of the 125 greatest living players in 2004.

France and Germany have both had two midfielders win at least one Ballon d’Or. France’s winners possessed excellent attacking abilities and played with brilliant flair whereas Germany’s midfield winners were more defensively minded. Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane both won the Ballon d’Or. Platini actually won the award three times and became the first football player to win the award three times in a row when he was presented with the accolade every year from 1983 to 1985.

Zidane won the award in 1998 after he helped Juventus win Serie A and reach the Champions League final. He also played a pivotal role in France’s World Cup triumph as he scored twice in the final. Lothar Mathaus and Matthias Sammer are the two German midfielders who have won the Ballon d’Or. Both could be deployed as defensive midfielders or sweepers and both players won the award in the 1990s after captaining Germany to international triumphs.

The midfield position, somewhat surprisingly, doesn’t really have a bias towards attacking, central, or defensive midfielders. Kaka and Roberto Baggio are two more winners of the award and, whilst they were attacking-midfielders during their careers, you can balance out their awards with Luka Modric’s selection in 2018. Modric’s winning the award that year was controversial as many believed Lionel Messi deserved it but Modric was central to Real Madrid and Croatia’s triumphs that season. Ruud Gullit also won the award in 1987 and Luis Suarez, a legendary Spanish footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s, won the award in 1960.

Rivaldo also won the award in 1999 and he is the only non-European midfielder to win the award. He is also one of just three players who are not originally from Europe to win the award. The most recent Ballon d’Or winner is Rodri, a rarity in that he is a defensive-minded player.

Wingers

Matthews the first, Messi the latest

The first ever winner of the Ballon d’Or was a winger. The legendary Stanley Matthews won the award whilst playing for Blackpool. The Stoke-On-Trent born magician was nicknamed the Wizard of Dribble and was one of the first real superstars of the game. He retired from football at the age of 50 playing for his hometown club, Stoke City.

Wingers dominated the award in the 2010s and late 2000s, although it was only two players who contributed to this. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who are possibly better described as forwards but have been classified as wingers for the purposes of this article, won the award a total of 12 times between them during that time period. This was an unprecedented era of domination of the award and it is likely that we won’t see a phenomenon like that for a very long time. More traditional wide players such as Pavel Nedved and Luis Figo have also won the award. Nedved’s win was another controversial one as many believed and still do believe that the award should have been given to Thierry Henry that year.

More often that not in years gone by wingers would lose out to strikers. But this did not stop Johan Cruyff from winning three Ballon d’Ors, or Raymond Kopa from winning the award in its infancy. Kopa is also the name of another World Player of the Year Trophy and it has been given to the U21 version of the Ballon d’Or, which is known as the Kopa Trophy. George Best also won the award in 1968, which solidified his credentials as one of the greatest wingers to have grace the game. He is the only player from the island of Eire to win the award.

Strikers

The most winning popular position

Unsurprisingly, strikers have been awarded the Ballon d’Or far more than any other position. The award has been given to a striker on 27 different occasions. The most recent winner of the award that plays as a striker is Karim Benzema, who won the award for his stellar performances in 2022.

Alfredo di Stefano, Omar Sivori, and Denis Law, were the first three strikers to win the award. A Hungarian striker won it after these three but it was not Ferenc Puskas as many people might think and instead it was Florian Albert who was nicknamed ‘The Emperor’ by fans and media alike. He won the award after a very strong domestic and international period for Ferencvaros, one of the biggest teams in Hungary.

Two Soviet Union strikers have also won the award which brought the number of winners from the USSR up to a total of three. Both players played for Dynamo Kyiv with the first winner being Oleg Blokhin. He won the award in 1975 after enjoying a brilliant season for the Ukrainian club, helping to fire them to a treble of sorts when they won the Soviet Top League, UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and UEFA Super Cup. The second winner was Igor Belanov who fended off Gary Linker and Emilio Butrageuno to win the award in 1986. Andriy Shevchenko was another forward who had played for Dynamo Kyiv who won the Ballon d’Or, but he was playing for AC Milan when he was named the world’s best player in 2004.

The first, and only as of 2024, African player to win the award was George Weah. He was the first non-European winner when he was presented with the award in 1995. He remains the only African player to win the award, with Sadio Mané being the only other African player to be nominated for the award. Ronaldo Nazario is the other non-European striker to win the award. He won it twice, first in 1997 after an incredible year for Barcelona and Inter Milan. He was also awarded the trophy in 2002 after he fired Brazil to their fifth World Cup.

One of the less well known winners of the award was a striker. Allan Simonsen was presented with the accolade in 1977 after he lead Borussia Monchengladbach to Bundesliga and DFB Supercup wins and the European Cup final. Additionally, England has had three winners of the Ballon d’Or who were forwards. Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan, and Michael Owen have all won the Ballon d’Or. Some might question Charlton’s inclusion here, but he was often used as a centre-forward during his career. Marco Van Basten won the award three times and German strikers Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Gerd Muller also won the award. Hristo Stoichkov won the award in 1994 after a strong season for Barcelona.