A prestigious award created by France Football in the 1950s, the Ballon d’Or somewhat self-destructed by merging with the title of Fifa Player of the Year in 2010 for financial reasons.
The history of the Ballon d’Or is not a long, quiet river, far from it. Launched in 1956 by the magazine France Football (by the same journalists from The Team at the origin of the Champion Clubs’ Cup the year before), the individual award celebrated the best European player each year until 1995, before opening up to players of all nationalities (playing on the Old Continent then all championships combined).
But the Ballon d’Or lost its credentials in 2010. Some will say that France Football sold its soul to the devil, since, faced with the decline in sales of the weekly, Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) ceded the name of the award to Fifa thanks to a financial agreement, as revealed AFP at the time. The international body then merged the Ballon d’Or and its title of Fifa Player of the Year to make it the “Fifa Ballon d’Or”.
When France Football trusted a jury of European journalists who tried to respect the established criteria, Fifa then extended the plebiscite to national coaches and captains from around the world. The Ballon d’Or then completely twisted. Wesley Sniejder and Franck Ribéry came first among journalists but were not crowned in 2010 and 2013, idols Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo continuing their harvest.
