Ballon d'Or winners: Who won the most? Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and others

The Ballon d'Or award is considered the most prestigious individual award in football, synonymous with the title of best player in the world.

The list of previous winners is a veritable honor roll of superstars past and present. Winning a Ballon d'Or trophy is considered the apex of individual success over the course of any footballer's career.

But to win multiple editions of the iconic Golden Ball is the stuff of legends. In fact, there are only 10 players who have ever done it and their names are ones any football fan would recognize.

The Sporting News looks back at these previous honorees — and it's clear how high the bar is for what players must achieve to get their hands on the Ballon d'Or. It is an exclusive club.

MORE: Ballon d'Or vs FIFA's The Best awards: Explaining the differences, history, and which one is bigger

Who has won the most Ballon d'Or awards?

The player with the most Ballon d'Or awards of all-time is Lionel Messi who has won it eight times. Behind him is Messi's long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo with five Ballons d'Or.

Only 10 players all-time have claimed multiple Ballon d'Or awards. There have been 34 other players who have claimed the Ballon d'Or once in their career.

MORE: Who were the 2022 Ballon d'Or nominees? All the finalists

Men's Ballon d'Or winners

The first Ballon d'Or was awarded in 1956 to Blackpool legend Stanley Matthews, one of the greats of the English game.

Dutch giant Johan Cruyff became the first player to win it three times in the 1970s. French star Michel Platini won it three times in a row — the first to achieve that feat — in the 80's.

Messi won the 2021 Ballon d'Or, beating out Robert Lewandowski and Jorginho by a narrow margin for his seventh trophy. He finished ahead of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe two years later.

Messi and Ronaldo have won 13 of the last 14 Ballon d'Or awards, with only Luka Modric capable of stopping that run in 2018. Those were the only three active players to have won a Ballon d'Or before being joined by Karim Benzema in 2022.

The women's Ballon d'Or has been awarded since 2018 with the 2020 event cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ballon d'Or Feminin

What is the Ballon d'Or?

The Ballon d'Or, which translates from French to "Golden Ball", is the most prestigious individual award in world football, honoring the best men's and women's player across the globe for that season.

The award was started by French publication France Football in 1956, and has been awarded every season since, except for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ballon d'Or was absorbed by FIFA in 2010 as part of a six-year partnership that ran through 2015. At that time it reverted back to France Football's sole ownership, with FIFA launching its own end-of-season player honors, The Best FIFA Football Awards. UEFA entered a new partnership with the French publication for the award from 2024.

The Ballon d'Or had historically recognized player performance over the course of a calendar year, but that has recently changed to align more closely with the European club season calendar.

It means that, as Messi sought his eighth win, the 36-year-old's performances that helped Argentina and Paris Saint-Germain to respective World Cup and Ligue 1 glory will have been taken into account but not his goal-laden start to life at Inter Miami.