Actual Madrid gamers have gained the Ballon d’Or 12 occasions in historical past as eight completely different gamers have taken the award whereas on the membership, from Alfredo Di Stéfano in 1957 to Karim Benzema in 2022.
That report is again in focus this month because the seventieth version shall be introduced on the London Palladium on Monday, October twenty sixth, the primary time the ceremony has been held in London. 4 gamers on France Soccer’s 30-man shortlist are Actual Madrid gamers, together with contender Kylian Mbappé, outdoors bets Jude Bellingham and Vinícius Júnior, and summer season signing Marc Cucurella.
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Contents
What number of Ballon d’Ors has Actual Madrid gained?
Actual Madrid has gained the Ballon d’Or 12 occasions by way of eight completely different gamers, placing the membership stage with arch rivals Barcelona on the prime of the all-time membership rating, with the 2 golf equipment accounting for all 24 of La Liga’s wins.
The break up between the 2 is completely different. Barcelona’s 12 come from six gamers, and 6 of these are Lionel Messi’s. Actual Madrid’s are unfold extra broadly, with Cristiano Ronaldo the one participant to win greater than twice on the membership. The latest winner to return from the Spanish capital is Karim Benzema in 2022.
Each Actual Madrid Ballon d’Or winner
The primary three got here through the membership’s run of 5 straight European Cups, and half of the 12 have come since 2013.
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Alfredo Di Stéfano (1957, 1959)
Di Stéfano was Actual Madrid’s first winner and stays one in every of solely two gamers to win it greater than as soon as on the membership. He arrived in 1953 and led the facet that gained the primary 5 European Cups between 1956 and 1960, scoring in every of these finals.
He was solely thought-about to be eligible as soon as he took up Spanish nationality in 1956, because the award was solely open to European gamers till 1995.
Raymond Kopa (1958)
Kopa joined from Reims in 1956 and gained three European Cups with Madrid, and his 1958 award adopted a World Cup in Sweden the place France completed third and he was named the event’s finest participant. Since 2018, France Soccer’s award for the very best under-21 participant has carried his identify.
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Luís Figo (2000)
Figo gained the Ballon d’Or months after crossing from Barcelona to Actual Madrid in July 2000 for what was then a world-record payment in one in every of soccer’s most controversial transfers of all time. A lot of the season that earned it was performed at Camp Nou, alongside a run to the Euro 2000 semi-finals with Portugal.
Ronaldo Nazário (2002)
Ronaldo joined from Inter on the finish of August 2002 and gained his second Ballon d’Or months later for what he’d performed the earlier season. It got here after his first with Inter in 1997, as he scored eight objectives on the 2002 World Cup, together with each of Brazil’s objectives of their remaining victory over Germany.
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Fabio Cannavaro (2006)
Cannavaro captained Italy to the 2006 World Cup and joined Actual Madrid from Juventus that summer season, profitable the award for his achievements in Italy earlier than he moved to Spain. To at the present time, Cannavaro stays the final defender to win the award.
Cristiano Ronaldo (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017)
Cristiano arrived from Manchester United in 2009, having already gained the award there in 2008 and his 4 Ballon d’Or wins for Actual Madrid are essentially the most by any participant on the membership.
The 2013 and 2014 awards got here through the interval when France Soccer’s prize was merged with FIFA’s World Participant of the 12 months because the FIFA Ballon d’Or. The 2014 award adopted La Décima, Actual Madrid’s tenth European Cup, by which he scored a then-record 17 Champions League objectives in a single marketing campaign. His 2016 and 2017 wins adopted back-to-back Champions League titles, with Euro 2016 for Portugal within the first 12 months and La Liga within the second.
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Luka Modrić (2018)
Modrić ended a decade by which solely Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had gained the award, with a season by which he gained a 3rd straight Champions League with Actual Madrid and led Croatia to the World Cup remaining. The margin was vast as Modrić obtained 753 factors to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 476 in his remaining 12 months within the Spanish capital earlier than becoming a member of Juventus.
Karim Benzema (2022)
Benzema’s award was the primary selected the European season fairly than the calendar 12 months, in response to the 2022 ceremony report. He led Actual Madrid to a Champions League and La Liga double, with knockout-round hat-tricks towards Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. He obtained 549 factors within the vote, whereas Thibaut Courtois completed seventh and Vinícius Júnior eighth in the identical vote.
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The asterisk on three of Actual Madrid’s wins
Three of Madrid’s 12 awards have been earned largely at different golf equipment. Figo’s 2000 season was performed for Barcelona, Ronaldo’s 2002 case rested on Inter and the World Cup, and Cannavaro’s 2006 season was spent at Juventus.
All three depend for Madrid as a result of France Soccer credit the membership a participant represents when the award is given. Every had signed for Madrid between the top of the season and the ceremony, though on a strict depend of seasons performed on the membership, Madrid’s complete falls to 9.
The close to misses
Vinícius Júnior (2024)
Vinícius got here nearer than any Madrid participant since Benzema as he completed second to Manchester Metropolis’s Rodri by 41 factors, 1,170 to 1,129. His 2023/24 season introduced success in La Liga, the Champions League and the Spanish Tremendous Cup, scoring the second objective within the 2-0 Champions League remaining win over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, after Dani Carvajal’s opener. Two extra Madrid gamers made the highest 4 as Jude Bellingham completed third with 917 factors and Carvajal fourth with 550, however no Actual Madrid gamers or employees attended the ceremony in protest, though Vinícius was named FIFA’s The Greatest Males’s Participant weeks later.
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Raúl (2001)
Raúl completed second to Liverpool’s Michael Owen in 2001, with 140 factors to Owen’s 176. He obtained 17 second-place votes from the 51 jurors however solely 5 first-place votes to Owen’s 19. Actual Madrid gained La Liga in 2000/01, and Raúl completed because the league’s prime scorer with 24 objectives. The Spanish facet additionally reached the Champions League semi-finals, the place they misplaced to eventual winners Bayern Munich. Owen’s case rested on Liverpool’s UEFA Cup win and two home cups, plus a hat-trick in England’s 5-1 win in Germany.
Ferenc Puskás (1960)
Legendary striker Puskás by no means gained the award both, along with his finest end being second in 1960, when he obtained 37 factors to the 54 of Barcelona’s Luis Suárez, after ending the 1959/60 season as La Liga’s prime scorer. His 1960 included 4 objectives within the European Cup remaining, as Actual Madrid beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 at Hampden Park for a fifth straight title.
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Actual Madrid Femenino and the Ballon d’Or Féminin
No Actual Madrid participant has gained the Ballon d’Or Féminin. The membership’s ladies’s part was solely fashioned in 2020, two years after France Soccer launched the award.
The membership’s first nominations got here in 2023, when Linda Caicedo, Olga Carmona and Hayley Raso made the 30-player checklist. Carmona completed sixth after scoring the profitable objective for Spain within the World Cup remaining, with Caicedo ninth and Raso seventeenth.
Regardless of Carmona leaving, for Paris Saint-Germain in 2025, this 12 months’s Actual Madrid-linked nominee is Caroline Weir for her achievements with Los Blancos final season, though she has since joined OL Lyonnes.
This text was initially revealed on Forbes.com
