The Ballon d’Or is an individual award football ceremony held in October each year. This award ceremony is to award the best player of the year and some other top performances as well.
The Ballon d’Or was established by the France Football Magazine in 1956. The Ballon d’Or award is given to the best player (football).
The inaugural winner for the Ballon d’Or was Stanley Matthews, a former Blackpool player. Also, the late Luis Suárez (played for Inter and FC Barcelona) was the only Spanish player to take the Ballon d’Or.
Former Barcelona player, Lionel Messi, has the most Ballon d’Or wins. He is a seven times Ballon d’Or winner.
The Federal Of International Football Association (FIFA) and the France Football Magazine in the years 2010 and 2015 collaborated on the Ballon d’Or. After the year 2015, FIFA made its own trophy and thus, ‘FIFA Best’.
As of 2023, there have been a heavy changes to the award criteria. Individual performance and outstanding records plays a vital role in winning the Ballon d’Or now than a collective team trophy.
This new requirements will mostly favour the world cup winner, Lionel Messi.
Also, changes have been made to the number of journalists who votes for the Ballon d’Or winner. 100 journalists would be selected from the top ranked 100 FIFA countries.
In the previous years, 170 male journalists were allowed to vote in the men’s category for the Ballon d’Or compared to 50 of them voting in the women’s category.
The 2023 Ballon d’Or ceremony will take place tonight, 30th October 2023 in Paris. According to reports, Lionel Messi will be crowned as the winner for the 2023 Ballon d’Or making him an 8th time winner of this prestigious award.
The debate for this year’s Ballon d’Or has been between Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland. Erling Haaland failed to qualify to the 2023 World Cup in Qatar with Norway whiles Lionel Messi led his team to glory after beating France on penalties in the World Cup final.
There is no doubt that Lionel Messi deserves this year’s Ballon d’Or after his jaw-dropping performance in the 2023 World Cup in Qatar.
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