How the Ballon d’Or Voting System Works

The Ballon d’Or is the most prestigious individual award that a football player can be awarded, but how does the voting for this iconic trophy work? First established in 1956 and won by English legend Stanley Matthews, the trophy has been awarded almost every year since to the best to ever play the game, including Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane.

Voting in the Ballon d’Or has changed multiple times over the years, so here we will be going through what the current system is compared to how it worked during the FIFA and France Football collaboration between 2010 and 2015, when the likes of Messi and Ronaldo also had their say.

The Ballon d’Or 2024 Voters

How votes are cast

The Ballon d’Or in 2024 will be voted on by a panel of journalists, and from 2022, the people chosen to vote are limited to the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings for the men’s game and the top 50 nations in the women’s. Each of these journalists will be making their top five picks from a shortlist, with each ranking they assign earning a different points value. Players who are selected first in a single journalist’s shortlist will receive six points, then four points for second, three points for third, two points for fourth and one point for fifth.

Previously, the voting assessment criteria meant that judging would need to be done on a calendar basis, taking into account a player’s performance from January to the end of December the prior year and also taking into account their overall playing career. Again, as of 2022, the format has changed, so the individual’s performance will be judged across a single European season of August to July. On top of this, several other criterion were added, including team success, player behaviour and fair play across the season.

Voters: Votes are cast by a panel of journalists from the top 100 FIFA-ranked nations for the men’s game and the top 50 nations for the women’s game.
Scoring System: Journalists rank their top five players from a shortlist. Points are awarded as follows: 6 points for 1st place, 4 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd, 2 points for 4th, and 1 point for 5th.
Criteria: Since 2022, voting is based on the player’s performance across a single European season (August to July), team success, player behavior, and fair play.

Players Voting for the Ballon d’Or

How the system has changed

As of 2024, the Ballon d’Or award is not voted for by players. There was, however, a time when the winner was judged by the coaches and captains of the national teams under FIFA’s jurisdiction as well as the journalists in the FIFA top 100 nations.

The ‘FIFA Ballon d’Or’ was an award that was created in collaboration between France Football and FIFA between 2010-2015, before the two sides agreed not to continue their working relationship. The award was presented yearly to the world’s best men’s player from 2010 to 2015, taking the place of the FIFA World Player of the Year award and the Ballon d’Or during that time frame.

There were six iterations of the FIFA Ballon d’Or awards and these were dominated by Messi and Ronaldo, with the former Barcelona player winning in 2010, 2011, 2012, Cristiano Ronaldo winning in 2013, 2014 before Messi won the final iteration of the award in 2015. The system of voting used was then based on positional voting, with each eligible voter getting three votes, worth five, three and one point respectively, with three finalists ordered based on these vote tallies. The voters would be provided with a shortlist of 23 players from which they could select the three players they believed to have performed best in the previous calendar year.

FIFA Ballon d’Or: During this period, the award was a collaboration between FIFA and France Football. Votes were cast by national team coaches, captains, and journalists.
Scoring System: Voters had three votes, worth 5, 3, and 1 point, based on a shortlist of 23 players. The top three players were finalists, and the winner was determined by the total points

The Awards Issued at the Ballon d’Or Ceremony

Best Men’s, Women’s, Team and more

Originally, only the Men’s Ballon d’Or trophy was awarded to the overall winner, but since 2019 there have been several different awards added to the ceremony. The Kopa Trophy, awarded to the best young men’s player was added in 2018 and the Women’s Ballon d’Or/Ballon d’Or Féminin was first introduced in 2019 and won by Ada Hegerberg.

Award
Criteria

Men’s Ballon d’Or Winner
Awarded to the best male football player across a European season

Women’s Ballon d’Or Winner
Awarded to the best female football player across a season

Kopa Trophy
Awarded to the best young men’s player (first introduced in 2018)

Yashin Trophy
Awarded to the best male goalkeeper across a season (first introduced in 2019)

Gerd Müller Trophy
Awarded to the best Striker of the Year across a season (first introduced in 2021)

Club of the Year Trophy
Awarded to the best European club over the course of a season (first introduced in 2021)

Socrates Award
Awarded for humanitarian work (first introduced in 2022)

Coach of the Year
Awarded to the best Men’s and Women’s team coaches across a season (first being introduced in 2024)

How the Ballon d’Or 2024 Voting Process will work

When shortlist is released and voting starts

The process of selecting the winners at the Ballon d’Or awards will officially begin in September 2024, when France Football will release a list of nominees. As of writing, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid are considered the front-runners for the prestigious award.

France Football will release a list of 30 nominees in each of the aforementioned categories on September 4th 2024, ahead of the main ceremony for the awards on October 28th 2024. France Football will then collect the votes from one journalist from each of the FIFA top 100 ranked nations, using the five vote system that we previously outlined.

Once all of the points have been calculated the winner will then be confirmed at the main ceremony in October. If two names are tied in the number one position, then the player/coach who gets the most number one nominations from the voters will be declared the trophy winner in their respective category.

Voting Timeline

Nominees Announcement: France Football will release a list of 30 nominees in September 2024.
Voting: Journalists from the top 100 FIFA-ranked nations will cast their votes using the five-vote system.
Ceremony: Winners will be announced at the main ceremony on October 28th, 2024.
Tie-Breaker: In case of a tie, the player/coach with the most 1st place votes will win.