FIFA Ballon d'Or

This article is about the combined FIFA world football player award issued between 2010 and 2015. For the European football award given by France Football, see Ballon d'Or. For the previous FIFA award (1991–2009), see FIFA World Player of the Year. For the current FIFA award (since 2016), see The Best FIFA Men's Player.
FIFA Ballon d'Or
FIFA Ballon d'Or awarded to Messi in 2010
SportAssociation football
Awarded forBest performing player of the calendar year
History
First award2010
Editions6
Final award2015
Most winsArgentina Lionel Messi
(4 awards)

The FIFA Ballon d'Or ("Golden Ball") was an annual association football award presented to the world's best men's player from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and France Football, the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Year award and the Ballon d'Or, the two most prestigious individual honours in world football. Unlike the Ballon d'Or awarded by France Football, the FIFA Ballon d'Or, was not awarded solely based on votes from international journalists, but votes from national team coaches and captains also, who selected the players they deemed to have performed the best in the previous calendar year.

The six editions of the FIFA Ballon d'Or were dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as part of their ongoing rivalry.

Messi, who played for Barcelona, won the inaugural Ballon d'Or in 2010 and went on to win three in a row, after his wins in 2011 and 2012. Ronaldo, who played for Real Madrid, won successive awards in the next two years. The final FIFA Ballon d'Or was presented to Messi in 2015. Its awarding bodies subsequently ended their partnership; for 2016, France Football reintroduced the previous format of the Ballon d'Or, while FIFA created The Best FIFA Men's Player award.