The FIFA Ballon d’Or is an annual association football award given by FIFA to the male player considered to have performed the best in the previous calendar year. It is awarded based on the votes from national team coaches and captains, as well as journalists from around the world.
The award started in 2010 after France Football’s Ballon d’Or and the men’s FIFA World Player of the Year award were merged. The winner of the inaugural 2010 FIFA Ballon d’Or was Lionel Messi who then went on to reclaim the title the following two years. After the merger, the FIFA World Player of the Year award became a women-only award.
Previous Winners
It might interest you to know that the first winner of this illustrious award was given to Sir Stanley Mattews an Englishman in 1956, other notable winners are as follows,
1965 Eusebio – Portugal
1972 Franz Beckenbauer – West Germany
1983 Michel Platini – France
1995 George Weah – Liberia
2005 Ronaldinho – Brazil
Fifa’s Main Sponsors
Fifa partnership sponsors includes, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyudai, KIA, Gazprom, and Visa
The contributions these companies make to FIFA in form of sponsorship per year is worth between 250 million – 300 million Euros.
Highlights of This Year’s Top 3
Messi – Lionel Messi will be creating a record if he wins this edition for the fourth time, no other player has gotten to this peak,
The 28 year old has all to gain from this year’s award, apart from the bragging right of being the best player in the world, he will have some extra, coming his way from his endorsement deal with Adidas. Adidas being one of Fifa’s major sponsors, will really be rooting for their boy to win this illustrious award as it would be a win-win situation for them. The 43-year partnership was renewed to cover all Fifa events till 2030.
The previous deal was renewed in 2005 at a cost of around €30m per year. The new agreement is believed to be worth significantly more.
Ronaldo – Cristiano Ronaldo a 2 time winner of this award will also want to have his name written in gold by winning the award for a third time, the 30 year old footballer/Model/movie star, would want to finish his career on a high, before he finally calls it quit in some years’ time.
The movie star who released his movie called RONALDO on the 9th of November and also has a clothing line and a designer perfume, has planned for life after football, mostly as an entrepreneur.
Neymar – well nothing to say about this wonderful, skilful Brazilian than, if wishes where horses beggars would ride, I guess he will just have to wait for his own turn, as Messi and Ronaldo are arguably the 2 best player in the world and all he can be for now is 3rd in line. Or will he surprise the world tonight?
Although Neymar won Samba Gold Award for the 2nd consecutive year running. The award is for the best Brazilian player plying his trade in Europe. The Barcelona player won the award ahead of Douglas Costa of Bayern Munich and Felipe Melo of Inter Milan.
So who will cart how the Ballon d’or tonight? keep your fingers crossed as the clock ticks
