The "Ballon d'Or" (French for "Golden Ball") is an association football award, created in 1956 by the French football magazine France Football. Until 2007 it was usually known in English as the European Footballer of the Year award. Ballon d'Or is widely regarded as the most prestigious individual award in football.
The award is given annually to the player considered to have performed the best over the previous year. Prior to 2007, the player had to be a member of a club based within UEFA's jurisdiction, in order to qualify for selection. Until 1995, a player also had to be of European nationality to be eligible. From 1995 to 2006 any player from a European club was eligible, regardless of his nationality. In October 2007 France Football announced that their new list of nominees includes players from around the globe, regardless of the league they play in.
Voting for the award is undertaken by a group of football journalists. Each voter chooses five players from the list of 50 nominees established by France Football, and awards them one, two, three, four and five points. The winner is determined by the total number of points. Players who finish second and third in the voting are awarded silver and bronze medals.
Only three players have managed to win the award three times, namely Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten of the Netherlands and Michel Platini of France (Ronaldo missed the award by a single point in 1996, robbing him of this honour). Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer hold the record of receiving votes from the jury for the longest consecutive number of years (12 years) - a testament to their consistency at the highest level.
2007 nominees included, Brazilian Rogério Ceni, player for São Paulo, and Iraqi Younis Mahmoud, player of Qatar's Alghrafa, were also benefited from this change. Mexico's Guillermo Ochoa (Club de Futbol América), Brazilians Daniel Alves (Sevilla), Diego (Werder Bremen), Kaká (Milan), Robinho (Real Madrid) and Ronaldinho (Barcelona) are included in the list, too. There are three Argentineans: Manchester United's Carlos Tevez, Boca Juniors' Riquelme, and Barcelona's Lionel Messi. The winner Kaká was announced on December 2. Voting for the award is undertaken by a group of 96 football journalists, out of which, for the first time, only 53 were Europeans. Each voter chooses five players from the list of nominees, and awards them one, two, three, four and five points.
