Recall that France Football in October announced a 30-man list players that will battle for the 2018 Ballon d’ or.
A panel of journalists, one from every country, will decide the winner, and will grade their nominees in three categories: performances during the calendar year, talent and fair play, and achievements throughout a career.
The favourite for this year’s Europe topflight individual prize remains Real Madrid midfielder, Luka Modric, who won the Champions League before leading Croatia to its first World Cup final in Russia this summer, where they were defeated 4-2 by France.
Modric recently won the FIFA Men’s Best Player award and also the UEFA’s Best Player of the year award.
According to Mirror UK, below is the list of every winner of the Ballon d’Or till date:
1. Stanley Matthews (1956)
2. Alfredo Di Stefano (1957), (1959)
3. Raymond Kopa (1958)
4. Luis Suarez (1960)
5. Omar Sivori (1961)
6. Josef Masopust (1962)
7. Lev Yashin (1963)
8. Denis Law (1964)
9. Eusebio (1965)
10. Bobby Charlton (1966)
11. Florian Albert (1967)
12. George Best (1968)
13. Gianni Rivera (1969)
14. Gerd Muller (1970)
15. Johan Cruyff (1971), (1973), (1974)
16. Franz Beckenbauer (1972), (1976)
17. Oleg Blokhin (1975)
18. Allan Simonsen (1977)
19. Kevin Keegan (1978), (1979)
20. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1980), (1981)
21. Paolo Rossi (1982)
22. Michel Platini (1983), (1984), (1985)
23. Igor Belanov (1986)
24. Ruud Gullit (1987)
25. Marco van Basten (1988), (1989), (1992)
26. Lothar Matthaus (1990)
27. Jean-Pierre Papin (1991)
28. Roberto Baggio (1993)
29. Hristo Stoichkov (1994)
30. George Weah (1995)
31. Matthias Sammer (1996)
32. Ronaldo (1997), (2002)
33. Zinedine Zidane (1998)
34. Rivaldo (1999)
35. Luis Figo (2000)
36. Michael Owen (2001)
37. Pavel Nedved (2003)
38. Andriy Shevchenko (2004)
39. Ronaldinho (2005)
40. Fabio Cannavaro (2006)
41. Kaka (2007)
42. Cristiano Ronaldo (2008), (2013), (2014), (2016), (2017)
43. Lionel Messi (2009), (2010), (2011), (2012), (2015).
