The list of football players who have received the "Ballon d'Or" award established by France's "France Football" magazine has been updated.
Medianews.az reports that Lionel Messi (Argentina) has won this award 8 times, Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) 5 times.
Johan Cruyff (Netherlands), Michel Platini (France), Marco van Basten (Netherlands) have each won the "Ballon d'Or" 3 times.
Football players who have won the "Ballon d'Or" 2 times: Alfredo Di Stefano (Spain), Franz Beckenbauer (Germany), Kevin Keegan (England), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Germany), Ronaldo (Brazil).
Those who have won the "Ballon d'Or" once: Stanley Matthews (England), Raymond Kopa (France), Luis Suárez Miramontes (Spain), Omar Sivori (Italy), Josef Masopust (Czechoslovakia), Lev Yashin (USSR), Denis Law (Scotland), Eusebio (Portugal), Bobby Charlton (England), Florian Albert (Hungary), George Best (Northern Ireland), Gianni Rivera (Italy), Gerd Müller (Germany), Oleg Blokhin (USSR), Allan Simonsen (Denmark), Paolo Rossi (Italy), Igor Belanov (USSR), Ruud Gullit (Netherlands), Lothar Matthäus (Germany), Jean-Pierre Papin (France), Roberto Baggio (Italy), Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria), George Weah (Liberia), Matthias Sammer (Germany), Zinedine Zidane (France), Rivaldo (Brazil), Luís Figo (Portugal), Michael Owen (England), Pavel Nedvěd (Czech Republic), Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine), Ronaldinho (Brazil), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Kaká (Brazil), Luka Modrić (Croatia), Karim Benzema (France), Rodri (Rodrigo Hernández) (Spain), Ousmane Dembélé (France).
From 1956 to 1994, the award was given to local players playing in Europe; since 1995, it became possible to award non-European players as well, and from 2007 the award has been given to the world's best football player.
Currently, the award is based on the results of a survey involving one journalist from each of the countries placed in the top 100 of the FIFA rankings.
Toğrul Ali,
Medianews.az
