Many fans mix up one award with another, not always sure who grants it or what criteria shape the decision-making process behind each honor.
In February 2023, the international football federation announced Lionel Messi as the winner of the Best award, the top individual honor bestowed by world football’s governing body. This often leads to confusion with the Ballon d’Or, which is slated to be awarded on the upcoming Monday, October 30, 2023.
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What distinguishes The Best from the Ballon d’Or?
The Ballon d’Or traces its lineage to 1956, when the French publication France Football began a tradition of evaluating match performances, player conduct, and overall impact on the field to designate the best European player of the year with the Ballon d’Or. Over the decades, the award became a symbol of individual excellence judged by a combination of performance data, peer and expert assessments, and the public narrative surrounding a player’s career in a given season.
In 1988, FIFA introduced its own annual recognition, the FIFA World Player of the Year, intended to honor the sport’s standout performer on a global scale. Although the award gained attention, it struggled to attain the same resonance within a crowded landscape of football accolades and media coverage.
With the aim of unifying European and global recognition, the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year were merged in 2009 to form the FIFA Ballon d’Or for the 2010 edition. This consolidation reflected an effort to include players across Europe more comprehensively and to acknowledge the global nature of the sport, while aligning with evolving criteria and presentation formats.
Six years later, the collaboration ended, and the FIFA Ballon d’Or concept was retired. The Best was introduced by FIFA in 2016 as a new way to recognize the planet’s finest soccer talent, with Cristiano Ronaldo serving as the inaugural recipient under that banner. The contemporary The Best award continues to be presented by the international federation and remains a focal point in the annual awards season, inviting debate among fans, pundits, and players alike about greatness, consistency, and influence across the calendar year.
These narratives illustrate how the sport’s most prestigious recognitions have shifted over time—from regional and continental emphasis to global assessments and, most recently, to a balanced approach that weighs performance, impact, and leadership on the field. The ongoing dialogue around The Best and the Ballon d’Or underscores how different organizations shape the criteria, ceremony, and public perception of football excellence.
Note: This overview reflects historical developments and contemporary structures related to these awards within professional football as observed in recent seasons.