How The Ballon d’Or Winners Are Decided?

Bhubaneshwar – The Ballon d’Or, presented by the French football magazine France Football, is one of the most prestigious individual awards in football. The process for selecting a winner is meticulous and has evolved over the years to ensure it recognizes the best player of the previous season.

The journey to the top begins with a shortlist of 30 male and 20 female players. These nominees are selected by the editorial staff of France Football and L’Équipe, along with the best juror from the previous year’s vote.

The winner is then decided by an international jury of specialized journalists. For the men’s award, 100 journalists from the top 100 FIFA-ranked nations cast their votes. For the women’s award, the jury consists of 50 journalists from the top 50 FIFA-ranked countries.

The journalists must adhere to three main criteria when casting their votes:

Individual Performance: The player’s goals, assists, overall influence on the game, and consistent performance throughout the season.
Collective Success: The titles and achievements of the player’s club and national team, and their decisive role in those successes.
Fair Play and Public Image: The player’s conduct on and off the field, including sportsmanship and their public persona.

Each journalist ranks their top candidates from the shortlist. The player who amasses the highest number of points from all the votes is crowned the winner.

A List of Recent Ballon d’Or Winners