How does Ballon d’Or voting work? Nominees and format explained

The most prestigious individual award in football underwent a historic change in 2022 as France Football announced that the award would no longer be judged for a player’s exploits over the calendar year.

So, last year, Karim Benzema became the first player in the 66-year (now 67) history of the Ballon d’Or to win the award based on his performances over the course of a season.

The game’s two contemporary greats have dominated this award over the past decade and a half, and one’s magical Middle Eastern fairytale renders him a strong favourite to win the award again in 2023. However, whether Lionel Messi wins his eighth crown will be decided by those gifted the power to vote.

Here’s how voting for the 2023 Ballon d’Or will work.

30 players will be nominated for the 2023 Ballon d’Or, but the list of nominees will not be revealed until 6 September ahead of the 30 October ceremony.

Messi remains the favourite to win his eighth Ballon d’Or after he guided Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar while enjoying a pretty productive season in Ligue 1 with PSG. However, he’s expected to be run close by Man City striker Erling Haaland.

The Nordic machine broke the single-season Premier League scoring record during his debut campaign at the Etihad, and finished 2022/23 with a mammoth 52 goals which helped his side to a historic treble.

Messi and Haaland are the overwhelming front runners and are sure bets to make this year’s podium. The likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Vinicius Jr, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane will likely be vying for third place.

The Ballon d’Or victor is decided by 100 journalists from FIFA’s 100 top-ranked member nations. Each journalist makes their top five picks from the 30-man shortlist, with each ranking earning a different points value/number of votes.

As you’d expect, the player that picks up the most points in voting is named that year’s Ballon d’Or victor.

Al Ittihad’s new recruit and the freshest face of the Saudi Pro League, Karim Benzema is the current holder of the Ballon d’Or following his excellent 2021/22 season.

The Frenchman scored 44 times in all competitions and struck up a destructive relationship with Vinicius Jr as Real Madrid won La Liga and embarked on a miraculous Champions League knockout journey which culminated in Parisian glory against Liverpool.

Benzema scored crucial goals during the knockout stages as Real bypassed PSG, Chelsea and Man City in the most dramatic of fashions before beating Jurgen Klopp’s Reds 1-0 in the final.

It was Benzema’s maiden Ballon d’Or triumph and the striker became just the second player after Luka Modric to break the Cristiano Ronaldo/Messi stranglehold on the award since 2008.

Recent Ballon d’Or winners