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Ballon d’Or Winners list: Ousmane Dembele joins Lionel Messi in elite club with maiden win, full winners list from 1956 to 2025

Ballon d'Or winners: Here is a look at the full list of Ballon d'Or winners across 69 seasons since 1956, with Ousmane Dembele joining the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the elite charts.

Paris Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembélé receives the 2025 Men's Ballon d'Or during the 69th Ballon d'Or awards ceremony. (AP)

Ballon d’Or 2025 winners: Star French forward Ousmane Dembele headlined the 69th edition of the iconic Ballon d’Or award, which was presented by France Football at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris on Monday evening.

Started in the year 1956, the Ballon d’Or represents the highest individual prize in world football and is being conducted by France Football in collaboration with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for the first time this season.

Argentine superstar Lionel Messi has won the award a record eight times. Messi is followed by his long-time European club football rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, who bagged the award five times between 2008 and 2017 while receiving a record 18 nominations since 2003.

Dembele in elite company

While Ronaldo and Messi have missed the cut for the 2025 Ballon d’Or for only the second successive time in two decades, Dembele’s win with his maiden nomination in the 30-man shortlist put him in elite company.

The 28-year-old is only the 10th man in history to win the coveted trouble of a FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the prestigious Ballon d’Or title in their career, joining a pantheon of footballing greats, including Messi.

Men to win World Cup, Champions League and Ballon D’or titles

Ousmane Dembélé
Lionel Messi
Ronaldinho
Kaká
Rivaldo
Zinedine Zidane
Bobby Charlton
Paolo Rossi
Gerd Muller
Franz Beckenbauer

Ballon d’Or winners list from 1956 to 2025

Year	Player	Nationality	Club
1956	Stanley Matthews	England	Blackpool
1957	Alfredo Di Stefano	Argentina/Spain	Real Madrid
1958	Raymond Kopa	France	Real Madrid
1959	Alfredo Di Stefano	Argentina/Spain	Real Madrid
1960	Luis Suárez	Spain	Barcelona
1961	Omar Sivori	Italy	Juventus
1962	Josef Masopust	Czechoslovakia	Dukla Prague
1963	Lev Yashin	Soviet Union	Dynamo Moscow
1964	Denis Law	England	Manchester United
1965	Eusébio	Portugal	Benfica
1966	Bobby Charlton	England	Manchester United
1967	Flórián Albert	Hungary	Ferencváros
1968	George Best	Northern Ireland	Manchester United
1969	Gianni Rivera	Italy	Milan
1970	Gerd Müller	West Germany	Bayern Munich
1971	Johan Cruyff	Netherlands	Ajax
1972	Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany	Bayern Munich
1973	Johan Cruyff	Netherlands	Barcelona
1974	Johan Cruyff	Netherlands	Barcelona
1975	Oleg Blokhin	Soviet Union	Dynamo Kyiv
1976	Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany	Bayern Munich
1977	Allan Simonsen	Denmark	Borussia Mönchengladbach
1978	Kevin Keegan	England	Hamburger SV
1979	Kevin Keegan	England	Hamburger SV
1980	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	West Germany	Bayern Munich
1981	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	West Germany	Bayern Munich
1982	Paolo Rossi	Italy	Juventus
1983	Michel Platini	France	Juventus
1984	Michel Platini	France	Juventus
1985	Michel Platini	France	Juventus
1986	Igor Belanov	Soviet Union	Dynamo Kyiv
1987	Ruud Gullit	Netherlands	Milan
1988	Marco van Basten	Netherlands	Milan
1989	Marco van Basten	Netherlands	Inter Milan
1990	Lothar Matthäus	Germany	Inter Milan
1991	Jean-Pierre Papin	France	Marselle
1992	Marco van Basten	Netherlands	Inter Milan
1993	Roberto Baggio	Italy	Juventus
1994	Hristo Stoichkov	Bulgaria	Barcelona
1995	George Weah	Liberia	Milan
1996	Matthias Sammer	Germany	Borussia Dortmund
1997	Ronaldo	Brazil	Inter Milan
1998	Zinedine Zidane	France	Juventus
1999	Rivaldo	Brazil	Barcelona
2000	Luís Figo	Portugal	Real Madrid
2001	Michael Owen	England	Liverpool
2002	Ronaldo	Brazil	Real Madrid
2003	Pavel Nedvěd	Czechia	Juventus
2004	Andriy Shevchenko	Ukraine	Milan
2005	Ronaldinho	Brazil	Barcelona
2006	Fabio Cannavaro	Italy	Real Madrid
2007	Kaká	Brazil	Milan
2008	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Manchester United
2009	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona
2010	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona
2011	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona
2012	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona
2013	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Real Madrid
2014	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Real Madrid
2015	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona
2016	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Real Madrid
2017	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Real Madrid
2018	Luka Modric	Croatia	Real Madrid
2019	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona
2020	Not awarded	——
2021	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Paris-Saint Germain
2022	Karim Benzema	France	Real Madrid
2023	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Inter Miami
2024	Rodri	Spain	Manchester City
2025	Ousmane Dembele	France	Paris-Saint Germain