What is the Ballon D’Or?
The Ballon D’Or originated in 1956 as the European Footballer of the Year award. Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran invented it as only available to European players, but later expanded to be open to all players. George Weah was the first non-European to win it in 1995, when all players playing in a European league were eligible. Later in 2007 all players could qualify for the award. Finally in 2018 the Ballon D’Or Feminin was established after 62 years!
Who picks the winner?
Journalists have always picked the winner, starting with Hanot and Ferran back in the fifties. Countries pick a journalist to represent them, and then coaches and captains of national teams as well. The representatives then pick from a list of 30 players, giving a top 5 list with the first getting 6 points, the second getting 4 points, and so on. However you may be thinking, where is the 5 points? Well they were hoping to add extra points to the first pick, in order to keep things weighted heavily in the direction of the ultimate winner.
Finally, who won this year?
For the women’s side, Aitana Bonmati won. Not a surprise since she was the favorite and won the World Cup for her team. And for the men’s side, Lionel Messi received his 8th Ballon D’Or. The runners up for the women were Sam Kerr and Salma Paralluelo, and for the men, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé took second and third.
https://olympics.com/en/news/ballon-or-2023-shortlist-announced-messi-haaland-list
https://theathletic.com/4995233/2023/10/30/messi-ballon-dor-explained/