•The 2024 Ballon d'Or ceremony will be held on October 28 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France.
•The winners in various categories of the awards are normally announced at the Ballon d'Or gala.
Image: Ballon d'Or
The Ballon d'Or is arguably the most prestigious award in the world of football.
The award is the dream achievement for many professional footballers across the globe.
France Football which is a French footballing publication is the main body behind the Ballon d'Or.
The award, which is issued yearly, is often associated with the world's best players, with the likes of Ronaldinho, Kaka, Luis Figo, Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Michael Owen, Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff, George Weah, and Zinedine Zidane having previously won it.
Argentina’s captain Lionel Messi has won the accolade eight times, with Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal being the closest with five awards.
The 2024 Ballon d'Or ceremony will be held on October 28 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France. This will be the 68th edition of the award.
But who decides the Ballon d’Or nominees and winner, and what are the criteria used? Here, The Star explains;
Nominations
According to football news publishers Goal.com, the editorial team of France Football, in collaboration with the Ballon d’Or ambassador and a few selected media members, decides on a list of 30 players who will contest for the prestigious award.
A panel of 100 journalists from FIFA's 100 top-ranked member nations is then enrolled to decide upon the winner.
Selection of winner
Previously, journalists from more than 180 nations were presented with ballots and tasked with picking their top five for the men's award, and then those votes were tabulated by France Football to determine the final ranking.
Things, however, changed in the 2022 edition when France Football decided to reduce the number of nations that received a ballot.
The list was restricted to the top 100 nations from the FIFA Men's World Ranking for men's award and the top 50 countries from the FIFA’s Women's World Ranking for women's award.
This change was done to ensure that only countries with an established football culture were involved in the decision-making for the prestigious award.
British publication The Mirror explains that during the voting, each journalist makes their top five picks from the shortlist, with each ranking earning different points of vote.
Six points are awarded for the player selected first, then four points for the player selected second, three points for the 3rd selected, 2 points for the 4th, and one point for the player selected 5th.
The award is then given to the player who earns the highest points in the voting process. If more than one player ties on points, the number of first-place votes they received is used to make the final decision.
The voting assessment criteria focus on three specific criteria that journalists base their final votes on. They include;
i) Individual performance in the previous season of August to July (no longer by calendar year or career success at all.)
ii) Team success during the previous season.
iii) Player’s behavior and fair play during the past season.
The three criteria allow the player who performs at an elite level and helps the team win medals to earn the recognition they deserve.
In the past, a player's overall career performance was taken into account by the voters.
Awarding ceremony;
The main awards that are presented at an annual gala ceremony are:
- Men's Ballon d'Or Winner for the best male football player.
- Women's Ballon d'Or Winner for the best female football player.
- Kopa Trophy for the best young men's player.
- Yashin Trophy for best male goalkeeper.
- Socrates Award for Humanitarian work.
- Coach of the Year.
- Gerd Müller/Striker of the Year.
- Club of the Year.
The winners in various categories of the awards are normally announced at the Ballon d'Or gala.