FIFA’s most prestigious individual award has had different incarnations down the years. It began in 1991 as the ‘FIFA World Player of the Year’ before being subsumed into the Ballon d’Or in 2010, both awards merging to one.
When that agreement ended in 2016, the ‘Best FIFA Men’s Player’ merit came into being, the honour currently held by Vinicius Jr of Real Madrid.
Rodri was runner-up, the Manchester City midfielder instead claiming the Ballon d’Or.
Confusing? Maybe a little, but whatever its moniker little else has changed for 34 years and counting. FIFA’s intention is to decorate and celebrate the best performing footballer over the previous calendar year.
And it is voted on by a large number of people, split evenly into four factions: media representatives, national team coaches, national team captains, and the general public.
So, with that housekeeping out of the way let’s duly celebrate these players, individuals who have significantly raised the bar in our lifetime, consistently reaching a level of excellence that we previously didn’t believe to be possible.
Messi and Ronaldo Duopoly
It will not come as any surprise to learn that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo combined have dominated this award in the modern era, claiming 13 of the 16 awards between 2008 and 2023.
Of the two, it is the Argentine who has been most decorated, crowned the best player in the world a remarkable eight times.
Their rivalry has gone down in yore and inevitably resulted in a million heated debates – whether online or down the pub – as to who was the greatest. What we can say with certainty is that each gobsmacked a watching global audience with their brilliance time and time and time again.
Messi of course conjured up the bulk of his magic at Barcelona, in a fantastical team that took football to an entirely new realm and hoovered up silverware on an annual basis.
In 778 appearances for the Catalan giant he scored 672 goals and carved out 303 assists, but not even these staggering statistics do justice to who he was, and what he did.
With a single drop of his shoulder he could make a mockery of any online betting odds that dared to doubt his wonderful team. With a single pass he could make a well-drilled back-line look as disorganised as jigsaw pieces spilled from a box.
Ronaldo, naturally, was much the same, hence the debates. He was quite simply on a different plane to every other professional footballer on the planet, bar one.
Players such as him – the rarest of jewels – were supposed to touch perfection every so often: to gift us with moments. That’s what we’d been led to believe. That’s all we’d ever known watching the highly esteemed likes of Baggio or Rivaldo before him. His namesake too.
Then injuries would ruin them. Or off-field problems. That, or they would only turn it on when in the mood.
Ronaldo was sensational week in, week out, and moreover attained this unprecedented level over many years.
There has been an awful lot written about this pair, and there is plenty more to come. But perhaps what is forgotten is their longevity.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s haul of FIFA World Player of the Year awards spanned seven years. Messi’s spanned 13.
Honour Roll Breakdown
Breaking the winners down to their nations we find that Brazil are streets ahead of everyone else, boasting six different recipients of the honour.
The only other countries with more than one winner are Portugal (Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo) and Italy (Roberto Baggio and Fabio Cannavaro).
The football odds on Brazil leading the way would of course be short indeed, the South American long being associated with producing magnificent talents. If this award had existed earlier we can safely assume Pele would be a multiple winner, so too Garrincha.
As it is, we will just have to settle for Romario, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and Vinicius Jr. That is one formidable 6-a-side team though maybe it’s a little short at the back.
Which brings us to an obvious, but pertinent point when assessing this list of footballing behemoths, that being the distinct lack of defenders and/or midfielders.
Only Fabio Cannavaro represents the former. Only Lothar Mattheus the latter. It stands to reason that the headline-makers should grab most of the glory and the plaudits. But virtually all of it?
Notable Omissions
If attacking talent have too often hogged the limelight, to the detriment of some seriously superb individuals, it can be said too that the duopoly of Messi and Ronaldo resulted in some much deserving names being overlooked.
Neymar has never won this award. Kylian Mbappe is yet to hold the trophy aloft to a roomful of tuxedos.
Indeed, the further back we go the more the oversights astound. Ruud Gullit never even made the top three.
His fellow Dutch genius Denis Bergkamp twice finished third. Paolo Maldini and Thierry Henry were never acclaimed the best player in the world, despite them being the best player in the world on more than one occasion in their illustrious careers.
Winners List
- 1991 – Lothar Matthaus
- 1992 – Marco Van Basten
- 1993 – Roberto Baggio
- 1994 – Romario
- 1995 – George Weah
- 1996 – Ronaldo
- 1997 – Ronaldo
- 1998 – Zinedine Zidane
- 1999 – Rivaldo
- 2000 – Zinedine Zidane
- 2001 – Luis Figo
- 2002 – Ronaldo
- 2003 – Zinedine Zidane
- 2004 – Ronaldinho
- 2005 – Ronaldinho
- 2006 – Fabio Cannavaro
- 2007 – Kaka
- 2008 – Cristiano Ronaldo
- 2009 – Lionel Messi
- 2010 – Lionel Messi
- 2011 – Lionel Messi
- 2012 – Lionel Messi
- 2013 – Cristiano Ronaldo
- 2014 – Cristiano Roaldo
- 2015 – Lionel Messi
- 2016 – Cristiano Ronaldo
- 2017 – Cristiano Ronaldo
- 2018 – Luka Modric
- 2019 – Lionel Messi
- 2020 – Robert Lewandowski
- 2021 – Robert Lewandowski
- 2022 – Lionel Messi
- 2023 – Lionel Messi
- 2024 – Vinicius Jr
