Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d’Or eight times, three more than Cristiano Ronaldo and five more than anyone else in the award’s history. No other player has won it more than three times.
Only 10 players have ever won it more than once across 69 editions, and between them Messi and Ronaldo hold 13 of those trophies. Here is every multiple Ballon d’Or winner, ranked.
Most Ballon d’Or Wins at a Glance
| Rank | Player | Wins | Country | Years Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Messi | 8 | Argentina | 2009-2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023 |
| 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 5 | Portugal | 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 |
| 3 | Johan Cruyff | 3 | Netherlands | 1971, 1973, 1974 |
| 3 | Michel Platini | 3 | France | 1983, 1984, 1985 |
| 3 | Marco van Basten | 3 | Netherlands | 1988, 1989, 1992 |
| 6 | Alfredo Di Stefano | 2 | Spain | 1957, 1959 |
| 6 | Franz Beckenbauer | 2 | West Germany | 1972, 1976 |
| 6 | Kevin Keegan | 2 | England | 1978, 1979 |
| 6 | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | 2 | West Germany | 1980, 1981 |
| 6 | Ronaldo | 2 | Brazil | 1997, 2002 |
The Multiple Ballon d’Or Winners
1. Lionel Messi: 8 Wins
Messi won four consecutively from 2009 to 2012, a run nobody else has approached, then added four more across 2015, 2019, 2021, and 2023. His first and last are 14 years apart.
The 2023 award followed Argentina’s World Cup victory the previous December and made him the first player to win it after moving outside European football. He remains the only player with more than five.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo: 5 Wins
Ronaldo won in 2008, then four more between 2013 and 2017, splitting the era with Messi almost evenly for a decade. He holds the record for most nominations with 18.
His wins came with both Manchester United and Real Madrid, and four of the five arrived during a period when he and Messi traded the award back and forth every year.
3. Johan Cruyff: 3 Wins
Cruyff won in 1971, 1973, and 1974, the central figure in the Total Football system that reshaped how the sport was played. He won two of them with Ajax and the third with Barcelona.
His influence outlasted his playing career by decades, since the coaching philosophy he later installed at Barcelona produced the team Messi came through.
3. Michel Platini: 3 Wins
Platini won three consecutively in 1983, 1984, and 1985 during his years at Juventus, the first player to manage a run of that length. Only Messi has since gone longer, with four in a row from 2009.
He was an attacking midfielder who scored at the rate of a forward, finishing as Serie A top scorer in each of those three seasons.
3. Marco van Basten: 3 Wins
Van Basten won in 1988, 1989, and 1992, the last of them while injuries were already ending his career. He retired at 28, younger than any other player on this list.
His 1988 European Championship volley for the Netherlands is among the most replayed goals in the sport. What he might have won with a full career is one of football’s larger unanswered questions.
Five Players Won It Twice
Alfredo Di Stefano won in 1957 and 1959 with Real Madrid during the club’s run of five consecutive European Cups. Franz Beckenbauer took the award in 1972 and 1976 as a defender, a feat almost no one has repeated, since the honour has gone overwhelmingly to attackers.
Kevin Keegan won consecutively in 1978 and 1979 while playing in Germany for Hamburg rather than in England, and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge followed immediately with back-to-back wins in 1980 and 1981. Those four years produced two different two-time winners in succession, the tightest cluster in the award’s history.
Ronaldo of Brazil completes the group with wins in 1997 and 2002, the second arriving after he recovered from serious knee injuries to win the World Cup and its Golden Boot.
Ten Players Hold 46% of All Awards
These 10 players account for 32 of the 69 Ballon d’Or awards given since 1956, or 46.4% of the total. The remaining 37 went to 37 different players who won exactly once.
So 47 players have won a Ballon d’Or in the award’s history. That is a wider spread than most individual honours in sport, largely because the award changed eligibility rules twice, opening first to non-European players at European clubs and later to players worldwide.
Messi and Ronaldo Took 13 of 15 Between 2008 and 2023
Between them Messi and Ronaldo won 13 awards, 18.8% of every Ballon d’Or ever given, and they did it inside a single stretch from 2008 to 2023. That period contained 15 editions, because 2020 was cancelled, so the two of them took 13 of 15.
Only two players interrupted them. Luka Modric won in 2018 after carrying Croatia to a World Cup final, and Karim Benzema took the 2022 award following a Champions League and La Liga double with Real Madrid. Both won once and never again.
Nothing comparable has happened before or since. The 2025 award went to Ousmane Dembele in a year when neither Messi nor Ronaldo was even nominated, the clearest end point yet to their era.
Sixty-Nine Awards in Seventy Years
The Ballon d’Or has been awarded 69 times since 1956, one fewer than the number of years, because the 2020 edition was cancelled during the pandemic. It is the only year since its creation with no winner.
The award has also changed shape repeatedly. It was restricted to European players until 1995, then opened to any player at a European club, and since 2007 has been open to players worldwide. Those changes matter when comparing eras, because Di Stefano and Beckenbauer competed for an award that excluded most of the planet.
Only One Defender Has Won It Twice
Franz Beckenbauer is the only defender with multiple wins, and defenders have taken the award just three times in total. Goalkeepers have won it once, Lev Yashin in 1963.
The bias toward attackers is structural rather than deliberate. Voters see goals and assists as countable evidence, while defensive contribution resists the same measurement, so forwards and attacking midfielders dominate a list decided largely on visible output. Every player in the top five here played as a forward or attacking midfielder.
Two Nations Have Produced Two Winners Each
The Netherlands and West Germany are the only countries with two multiple winners apiece. Cruyff and van Basten give the Dutch six trophies between them, while Beckenbauer and Rummenigge give Germany four.
The remaining six players come from six different countries: Argentina, Portugal, France, Spain, England, and Brazil. That spread is unusual for a European-run award, and it reflects the eligibility changes described above, since players from outside Europe could not win it at all before 1995.
The Dutch record is the more striking of the two. The Netherlands has never won a World Cup, losing three finals without lifting the trophy, yet its players have collected six Ballon d’Or awards. Individual brilliance and national success clearly do not track each other closely, a point our ranking of the most World Cup wins by country makes from the opposite direction.
Football Spreads Its Top Honour More Widely Than Motorsport
Ten players hold 46.4% of all Ballon d’Or awards. By comparison, 17 drivers hold 76.3% of every Formula One world championship, a far tighter grip on an individual title, as our ranking of the most F1 world championships sets out.
The reason is equipment. A Formula One driver’s result depends heavily on the car beneath him, and a dominant car stays dominant across seasons, so championships arrive in long runs. Footballers share the same pitch, the same ball, and broadly the same conditions, so an individual award turns on form in a single season rather than on a technical advantage that persists for years.
That difference shows in the numbers. Football has produced 47 different Ballon d’Or winners in 69 editions, while Formula One has produced 35 champions in 76 seasons.
How We Ranked Ballon d’Or Winners
Players are ranked by total Ballon d’Or awards won, covering all 69 editions from 1956 through 2025. Tied players share a rank, so the three-time winners all rank third and the next group ranks sixth.
The cutoff is two wins, which captures every multiple winner. Awards given under the temporary FIFA Ballon d’Or arrangement between 2010 and 2015 are counted, as the sport’s records treat them as the same award. Ousmane Dembele won the 2025 edition, his first, so he does not appear here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who has won the most Ballon d’Or awards?
Lionel Messi, with eight. Cristiano Ronaldo is second with five, and no other player has won more than three.
Who won the 2025 Ballon d’Or?
Ousmane Dembele of France, his first. Neither Messi nor Ronaldo was nominated that year, the first time in nearly two decades that both were absent from the shortlist.
Has a defender ever won the Ballon d’Or?
Yes, three times in total, and Franz Beckenbauer is the only defender to win it twice. Lev Yashin in 1963 remains the only goalkeeper ever to win.
Why were there 69 awards but 70 years?
The 2020 edition was cancelled because of the pandemic, making it the only year since 1956 without a Ballon d’Or winner.
How many players have won the Ballon d’Or?
Forty-seven. Ten have won more than once and 37 have won exactly one.