Who actually votes
The Ballon d'Or is decided by a panel of journalists, one selected from each of a large group of countries ranked by FIFA, rather than by fan voting or a small internal committee. Each voting journalist is chosen specifically for their football expertise in their own football association's country, which is meant to give the award a genuinely global spread of opinion rather than one dominated by any single football culture.
The points system
Each voting journalist ranks their top players from a shortlist, and points are awarded based on where a player is placed — a first-place vote is worth significantly more than a fifth-place vote. All the points from every participating journalist are added up, and the player with the highest total wins. This system means a player does not need to be everyone's first choice to win; being a strong, consistent second or third choice across a large number of ballots can be enough.
What voters are actually weighing
The award is nominally for the best individual performance over the preceding season, but in practice voters weigh a mix of factors: individual statistics, team success, the difficulty of the competitions a player featured in, and increasingly, standout performances in major international tournaments. This is why the criteria can feel inconsistent from year to year — it is a judgement call made by hundreds of individual voters, not a single measurable formula.
Why a World Cup year changes everything
In a year with a men's World Cup, the tournament tends to dominate Ballon d'Or conversation more than any club season could, simply because it is the most-watched football event in the world and puts every serious contender under the same spotlight at the same time. A standout World Cup — winning it, like Spain did in 2026, or an individual honour like the Golden Boot — becomes a central part of the case for or against a player, on top of whatever they did for their club that season.
Reading the room after a big tournament
After a tournament like the 2026 World Cup, the debate usually centres on a handful of storylines: the players on the winning team, the individual award winners like the Golden Boot, and any performance widely seen as tournament-defining. See our pieces on Spain's World Cup win and Mbappé's Golden Boot for the storylines likely to shape this year's conversation. More football coverage in our Sports section.
