The Ballon d\u2019Or was created in the mid-1950s by writers Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran as a journalistic prize for the best European player in Europe. What began as a straightforward honour has become one of football\u2019s most argued-over awards, with every era producing its own flashpoints.<\/p>\n
By 2026, the contest sits in a different world. The Messi-Ronaldo period and the wider rise of individual acclaim have only intensified the debate, with stars such as Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Lamine Yamal now openly seeking votes. Yet the award has never been decided unanimously, and its history is crowded with choices that have baffled observers.<\/p>\n
The early rules left out the world\u2019s great non-Europeans until 1995, which means names such as Pel\u00e9, Diego Maradona, Mario Kempes and Rom\u00e1rio do not appear among the winners. The inconsistencies did not stop there, as players such as Alfredo Di Stefano and Omar S\u00edvori were eligible through dual citizenship.<\/p>\n
Kevin Keegan\u2019s 1978 win remains one of the oddest, especially when set against the year he had, while Kenny Dalglish finished only eighth despite 31 goals and a European Cup final winner. More recently, Erling Haaland\u2019s 52 goals in 53 games during Manchester City\u2019s treble season still were not enough to prevent Lionel Messi taking the prize.<\/p>\n
The 2010 vote also caused lasting frustration. Messi profited from split support between Andr\u00e9s Iniesta and Xavi, while Wesley Sneijder, central to Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s treble-winning Inter Milan side and the Netherlands\u2019 run to the World Cup final, ended up fourth. Diego Milito, despite a major season, was not even nominated.<\/p>\n
Michael Owen\u2019s 2001 success is still disputed, with Ra\u00fal\u2019s La Liga dominance prompting the headline \u201cStolen Ballon d\u2019Or\u201d in Spain. In 2003, Pavel Nedv\u011bd beat Thierry Henry, who had become the first player to reach 20 league goals and 20 assists in a Premier League season.<\/p>\n
The 1960 result also drew scrutiny, as Lu\u00eds Su\u00e1rez prevailed while Ferenc Pusk\u00e1s finished second despite 47 goals in 36 games. More recently, Vin\u00edcius Jr being passed over for Rodri led to Madrid\u2019s boycott of the Paris ceremony and a pointed statement from the club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A look at the Ballon d\u2019Or\u2019s most disputed decisions, from early exclusions to modern outrage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-20296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}