FIFA Ballon d'Or Award-FIFA Player of the Year Award

FIFA Ballon d'Or Award or FIFA Player of the Year Award for male

FIFA Ballon d'Or

   The FIFA Ballon d'Or (it means “Golden Ball" in French) is an organization football award given annually to the male player who is considered to have performed the best in the previous year. It is awarded based on votes by coaches and captains of international teams, as well as journalists from around the world.

   Previously, the Ballon d'Or was referred to as the European Footballer of the Year award. It is an annual association football award. The award was conceived by France Football’s chief magazine writer Gabriel Hanot, who asked his associates to vote for the player of the year in Europe in 1956. The first winner was British footballer Stanley Matthews of Blackpool football club.

   Originally, journalists could only vote for European players at European clubs, meaning that players like Diego Maradona (who played in European football clubs but is not an European) and Pele (who neither played for a European club and nor European) were ineligible for this award. A change in the rules in 1995 allowed non-European players to be eligible for the award if they played for a European club. The first non-European to win after the rule change was A.C. Milan’s George Weah in that same year. In 2007, any player in the world became eligible, and the number of journalists allowed to vote also increased; 96 journalists from around the world chose their top five players, as opposed to the 52 Europe-based journalists in 2006. 

 
   The Ballon d’Or and the men’s FIFA World Player of the Year award were merged in 2010. So, the world’s best male player has since been awarded the FIFA Ballon d’Or each year. The UEFA declared the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award in 2011, so it could keep the honor and heritage of the old Ballon d’Or after it was merged to create the FIFA Ballon d’Or. After the joining, the FIFA World Player of the Year award became a women-only award for the World’s best female footballer.

Football Player of the Century:

   In 1999 France Football Federation consulted their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century. Among the 34 former Ballon d'Or winners (from 1956 to 1999) 30 players of them voted. Stanly Matthews, Omar Sivori and Geprge Best refused to vote, and Lev Yashin was already dead. Each of the 30 voters chose 5 players. 5 points were given for the 1st place, 4 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd, 2 points for 4th and 1 point for 5th.

   Brazilian footballer Pele received the most votes and he had been voted as the greatest of all time by 17 of the voters (17 first place, 5 second place, 4 third place, 2 fourth place and 1fifth place, total 122 points) followed by Argentinean footballer Diego Maradona (65 points), the Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff (62 points), Argentinean footballer Alfredo Di Stefano (44 points) and the French footballer Michel Platini (40 points).

Special Ballon d’Or Award:

Pele with FIFA Ballon d'Or

   In 2014, Pele was given an honorary Ballon d’Or, having won three FIFA World Cup titles with Brazil during his football carrier. But he never got an individual award from the FIFA, during his playing career European based players were only eligible to win the original Ballon d’Or award.  Pele didn’t play in Europe. So, he couldn’t get that award. The authorities confess their technical mistake and gave an honorary Ballon d’Or award to the legendary footballer, Pele. 

Super Ballon d'Or Award:

   A special Ballon d'Or was given to Argentinean footballer Alfredo Di Stefano. In December 1989, under the name of Super Ballon d'Or, this coincided with the 30th anniversary of the French magazine. It was given after a vote where Alfredo Di Stefano exceeded the Dutch Johan Cruyff and French Michel Platini.