Idowu Ademola

7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About the Ballon d’Or The first man to win the Ballon d’Or was 41 years old. Tonight, the ceremony goes to London for the first time, and it is doing it for him. His name was Stanley Matthews. In 1956, while playing for Blackpool, he won the very first Ballon d’Or with 47 points, just three ahead of Alfredo Di Stéfano. He was 41 years and 321 days old, and 70 editions later, nobody older has ever won it. This year, the organisers moved the ceremony from Paris to the London Palladium to honour him, the first time it has ever been held outside France. I tell this story because most of us only know the Ballon d’Or as the night Messi or Ronaldo walks up a stage. The award has a much stranger history than that. 1. Pelé never won it because he was not allowed to For its first 39 years, only European players could win the Ballon d’Or. That meant Pelé and Maradona were never eligible, no matter what they did. In 2016, for the award’s 60th anniversary, France Football went back and reviewed those years. Their conclusion was that Pelé would have won it seven times and Maradona twice. The original winners stayed on the record, but it tells you how much the rule cost the award. 2. Only one African has ever won it When the rule changed in 1995 to allow non-Europeans playing at European clubs, the very first winner was George Weah of Liberia, then at AC Milan. More than 30 years later, he is still the only African winner. There is an interesting footnote. Eusébio won it in 1965, and he was born in Mozambique, but he played for Portugal, so he is not counted as an African winner. For those of us on this continent, Weah’s win remains the high point, and we are still waiting for the next one. 3. The youngest winner was Ronaldo The youngest winner is Ronaldo, the Brazilian one. He won it in 1997 at 21 years and 96 days, in his only season at Barcelona before moving to Inter. It is a record that has survived Messi, Cristiano and Mbappé. Lamine Yamal finished second last year, he may even win it today. So it may not survive much longer. 4. Messi has the most wins, but Cristiano has the most nominations Lionel Messi has won it eight times, more than anyone in history, and he is on the shortlist again tonight. Cristiano Ronaldo has five wins, but he holds a different record, which is 18 nominations, the most of any player. One record rewards peak brilliance and the other rewards staying at the top for nearly two decades. Both are remarkable in their own way. 5. In 2020, nobody won it The Ballon d’Or was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first time since 1956 that the award was not given at all. France Football’s reasoning was that a season with so many suspended matches could not be judged fairly. Many people still believe Robert Lewandowski lost a Ballon d’Or that year without ever losing a vote. 6. The trophy’s raw materials are worth about €3,000 The trophy has been made since 1956 by Mellerio, a jeweller on Rue de la Paix in Paris. Each one takes almost 100 hours to make, and production starts about six months before the ceremony. Yet the raw materials are estimated to be worth only about €3,000. From a business point of view, I love this one, because it shows you that compared to the worth of its winner, the trophy is worth almost nothing. It is the name on it that is worth a fortune. 7. Real Madrid once refused to show up In October 2024, Real Madrid learned that Vinícius Júnior would not win. The whole club stayed away from the ceremony in Paris. Their statement was simple: “Real Madrid does not go where it is not respected.” Rodri won, and Vinícius finished second. As a lawyer, what interests me is that nobody could make them attend. It is a private award run by a media company, so there is no rule and no sanction for staying at home. A club can boycott it the same way you can decline an invitation to a party. So the Ballon d’Or has given its first trophy to a 41-year-old, shut out Pelé for decades, taken a year off and survived a boycott by the biggest club in the world. Tonight, it adds one more first to that list in London. My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.