Rules, voting, ranking… how is the 2024 Ballon d’Or awarded?

The Ballon d’Or has already had several lives. Monday October 28, once the ranking has been rolled out in dribs and drabs by the magazine France Footballthe name of the 68th winner will finally be revealed to the world. After a 2023 edition, marked by the announced coronation of Lionel Messi, absolute record holder with eight awards, the most coveted individual prize in football will be awarded to a novice in the field.

On the starting line, there are 30 players wanting to add their names alongside those already adorning this prestigious list. In the absence of the Argentinian, defending champion, and Cristiano Ronaldo, unheard of for 21 years, but also of Luka Modric and Karim Benzema, respectively crowned in 2018 and 2022, the match seems more open than ever.

“Vini” and Bonmati as favorites

If Rodri and Dani Carvajal, European champions with Spain, or Jude Bellingham, winner of the Champions League with Real Madrid, have a card to play, Vinicius Jr has made an impression a little more than the other three. A figure in the fight against racism, against which he stood up again after the Clasico lost to Barça (0-4), last weekend, “Vini” gained ground last season.

He was the great architect of Real Madrid’s Liga-C1 double. Named best player in the Champions League, he distinguished himself in the final by scoring against Borussia Dortmund (0-2). Although less flamboyant with the selection auriverdeeliminated in the quarter-finals of the Copa America, this should not prevent her from leaving with the Ballon d’Or. He would then become the first Brazilian player to lift the famous individual award since Kaká in 2007.

Among the ladies, the outcome of the vote is more certain. After Alexia Putellas, winner in 2021 and 2022, Aitana Bonmati is well on her way to achieving the double. Also trained at Barça, the 26-year-old Spanish midfielder has contributed to making her club a major one in Europe, winner of the 2021, 2023 and 2024 Champions League, as well as the last five Ligas. The best player of the last World Cup, qualified as“Iniesta in the feminine” by Pep Guardiola, should be accompanied on the podium by her compatriots and club teammates, Alexia Putellas and Salma Paralluelo. Proof of Spanish domination for four years, which even the Americans, crowned Olympic champions in Paris, should not be able to challenge.

A constantly evolving process

Created in 1956 by France Footballthe trophy which rewards the best player of the year has not always existed in its current form. The distinction, reserved until 1995 only for European players playing in a European club, gradually opened up to foreign players playing in Europe then to all nationalities in 2007. Which explains why neither the Brazilian Pelé nor the The Argentinian Diego Maradona, who nevertheless lifted the World Cup, never won it during his career.

Its method of allocation evolved in 2010, with an expanded panel of voters and a corrected rating system. Deemed unfair, since it did not reward the best player of the year (Wesley Sneijder in 2011 or Franck Ribéry in 2013) but above all the best player in the world, it was redesigned in 2016 with the end of the partnership with Fifa .

From then on, the magazine chose to return to a more traditional formula by relying on what had made the Ballon d’Or successful until then: the single vote of 170 journalists, increased to 100 in 2022, chosen on the base of the first 100 countries in the Fifa ranking, plus three new jurors (Didier Drogba and the two most relevant journalists on the previous vote). Since 2018, the same process has been applied for the Women’s Ballon d’Or, where 50 journalists specializing in football, corresponding to the top 50 Fifa countries, are called upon to decide on the winner.

Adjusted criteria to open the game

In recent years, two new features have been introduced into the election method. Since 1956, the Ballon d’Or was awarded at the end of the calendar year, which required voters to judge the performances of two half-seasons (January-July and August-December). Since 2022, the calendar has been aligned with the season (August-July), from the start of major championships to the end of international competitions, “to gain consistency, readability and clarity”.

As for the rating system, dictated by three criteria, it saw that of the player’s career disappear. The objective: to reduce the risks of a “private preserve”, a failing of the past with 12 coronations shared between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in 13 years. THE “values” retained are now the following: 1. individual performances and decisiveness; 2. collective performances during the year in question, understand the prize list and 3. the class of the player, in other words talent and fair play.

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Each criterion delivers points, the number of which varies depending on the player’s position. A ranking is then established, allowing a winner to be drawn, revealed during a ceremony broadcast on the channel. The Teamaccessible on the TF1+ streaming platform (new window).

To open the game as much as possible, it was decided, this year, that each voter on the panel will nominate a Top 10 in descending order, i.e. 15 points for the first choice, 12 for the second then 10, 8, 7, 5, 4 , 3, 2 and 1 point. A way of making the verdict more uncertain. Or at least try.