Ballon d'Or Quiz: 25 Questions About Football's Most Famous Award

The Ballon d’Or is the most famous individual award in football, and it is also one of the richest sources of trivia: record holders, surprise winners, a goalkeeper, a cancelled year and a long list of legends who never won it. Below are 25 Ballon d’Or quiz questions in three rounds, with the answers right after each question, followed by a few quick facts worth remembering.

A short history of the Ballon d’Or

The French magazine France Football created the Ballon d’Or in 1956. At first only European players at European clubs could win it. From 1995 it was opened to players of any nationality at European clubs, and from 2007 to players at any club in the world. Between 2010 and 2015 it was merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year as the FIFA Ballon d’Or, before the two awards split again in 2016. A women’s Ballon d’Or was added in 2018.

Round 1: Warm-up

1. Which magazine created the Ballon d’Or? France Football
2. In which year was the first Ballon d’Or awarded? 1956
3. Who won the first Ballon d’Or? Stanley Matthews
4. Who has won the most Ballon d’Or awards? Lionel Messi (eight)
5. How many Ballon d’Or awards has Cristiano Ronaldo won? Five
6. Which Croatian midfielder won in 2018, ending ten years of Messi and Ronaldo wins? Luka Modrić
7. Which French striker won in 2022? Karim Benzema
8. Which Spanish midfielder won in 2024? Rodri

Round 2: Records and firsts

9. Who is the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or? Lev Yashin (1963)
10. Who was the first African player to win it, in 1995? George Weah
11. Who won three in a row in 1983, 1984 and 1985? Michel Platini
12. Which Dutch player won three, in 1971, 1973 and 1974? Johan Cruyff
13. Which other Dutch striker also won three, in 1988, 1989 and 1992? Marco van Basten
14. Which German defender won the award twice, in 1972 and 1976? Franz Beckenbauer
15. In which year was the Ballon d’Or not awarded? 2020
16. Which Brazilian striker won in 1997 at the age of 21 and again in 2002? Ronaldo (Ronaldo Nazário)

Round 3: Hard

17. Which Real Madrid forward won in 1957 and 1959? Alfredo Di Stéfano
18. Which Portuguese forward won in 1965? Eusébio
19. Which Italian defender won in 2006, the year Italy won the World Cup? Fabio Cannavaro
20. Which Liverpool striker won in 2001? Michael Owen
21. Which Czech midfielder won in 2003? Pavel Nedvěd
22. Which Bulgarian forward won in 1994? Hristo Stoichkov
23. Who won in 2007, the last winner before the Messi and Ronaldo era? Kaká
24. Who won the first women’s Ballon d’Or in 2018? Ada Hegerberg
25. Which Spanish midfielder won the women’s award in 2021 and 2022? Alexia Putellas

Twenty or more is an excellent score. Fifteen is solid. If round three caught you out, you are in good company: the 1990s and 2000s winners are the ones most fans forget.

Quick facts worth remembering

• Messi’s eight: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
• Ronaldo’s five: 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
• Three-time winners before them: Cruyff, Platini and Van Basten.
• Defenders are rare winners. Beckenbauer, Matthias Sammer (1996) and Cannavaro are the best-known examples.
• The 2020 gap is a classic trick question: there is no 2020 winner.
• Great players who never won it include Pelé and Diego Maradona, because for decades only European players were eligible. Pelé later received an honorary FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2013.

Tips for award quizzes

• Learn the winners by decade. Ten names per decade are far easier to remember than a list of seventy.
• Link each winner to a big moment. Cannavaro and the 2006 World Cup, Modrić and Croatia’s run to the 2018 final, Rodri and Spain’s Euro 2024 title.
• Watch for “who never won” questions. They test whether you know the eligibility rules as well as the winners.

If you enjoyed this, try our hardest football trivia questions or check where you stand with a football IQ test.

Play award questions in GolVix

GolVix has a Players topic full of questions like these, alongside Leagues, Clubs, National Teams, Tournaments and Football Culture. Every answer has a short “Why?” explanation, there is a five-question daily challenge, and you can take the 20-question Football IQ test to see how you rank. Questions use settled facts up to the end of the 2024-25 season.