The Ballon d’Or is perhaps the most prestigious individual award in football, and the winner is believed to be the finest player in the world at that point in time.

The award is given out annually by the French weekly magazine France Football to the best footballer of the year. It was originally awarded only to men, but a women’s award was introduced in 2018.

The inaugural recipient of this honour in 1956 was England’s Stanley Matthews, and the player with the most wins is Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who has taken home the trophy a record eight times.

LaLiga has had the most Ballon d’Or winners, but only two Spanish teams have seen their players win the prized honour. It’s no surprise that the league has also bagged the most honours thanks to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

List of leagues with most Ballon d’Ors

5. Ligue 1: 5

Ligue 1 has five Ballon d’Or winners, and their latest was when Ousmane Dembele lifted the award last year, becoming the first Ligue 1 star since Lionel Messi to lift the award. Moreover, the French league has the fewest Ballon d’Or winners compared to other leagues.

4. Premier League: 7

The Ballon d’Or has visited England seven times. Over the years, several of these stars have played in the Premier League.

Since its founding in 1992, the Premier League has produced three winners. The overall number of English top-flight players to win the award increases to seven if the historical First Division (before 1992) is taken into account.

3. Bundesliga: 9

Six different players have won nine Ballon d’Or awards from the German league Bundesliga. A player from four different German teams has won the coveted trophy while competing in the division.

Bayern Munich heads the German top flight with 5 overall awards (split between Müller, Beckenbauer and Rummenigge). Hamburger SV are next on two awards, while Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach have an award each. The last Bundesliga winner of the award was Matthias Sammer, who claimed it in 1996 after his exploits for Dortmund and Germany.

2. Serie A: 18

The Italian top flight has witnessed 18 Ballon d’Or triumphs by men, with Serie A sitting second only to LaLiga. These 18 prizes are shared amongst 13 individual players from only three famous teams: Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan.

Interestingly, no Serie A player has won the award since 2007, despite the league’s long-standing dominance of the football world, notably during the golden years between 1982 and 2007.

1. LaLiga: 21

LaLiga is home to 21 men’s Ballon d’Or winners, the most of any domestic league in football history. 14 players from just two Spanish teams, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, have shared these 21 accolades, tied at 12 victories each.

Stars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Johan Cruyff, Luka Modrić, Karim Benzema, etc have won the prize, with Messi and Ronaldo mostly dominating the coveted award during their time in the Spanish league.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Telegram.