How Many Ballon d'Or Does Messi Have? 8 Wins Listed

So, how many Ballon d’Or does Messi have? Eight: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023, a record no other player is close to.

The question spiked again after the 2026 ceremony in London on 26 October 2026, where Harry Kane took the men’s award. Messi’s total did not change, and here is the full picture.

Key takeaways

Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d’Or a record eight times.
Cristiano Ronaldo is second with five. Platini, Cruyff and Van Basten have three each.
Messi’s four in a row from 2009 to 2012 is also a record.
Harry Kane won the 2026 men’s award, so the top of the leaderboard stays the same.

Golden trophy on display, representing the Ballon d'Or Messi has won eight times — Photo by Florian Cordier on Unsplash

Which years did Messi win the Ballon d’Or?

The eight wins, as listed by Guinness World Records and the Boston Globe’s report on his eighth, split into three eras.

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012: four straight awards during his Barcelona peak. No one else has won four in a row.
2015: a fifth, again with Barcelona.
2019 and 2021: two more, the 2021 one coming after the award was cancelled in 2020.
2023: the eighth, after Argentina’s World Cup win in Qatar.

The 2010 award was awarded under a merged FIFA and France Football format, but France Football’s record counts it as a Ballon d’Or win, which is why the total is eight.

Who has won the most Ballon d’Or awards?

Messi leads by a wide margin. The table below follows the standings reported by The National and Sports Illustrated.

Player	Wins	Years
Lionel Messi	8	2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023
Cristiano Ronaldo	5	2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017
Michel Platini	3	1983, 1984, 1985
Johan Cruyff	3	1971, 1973, 1974
Marco van Basten	3	1988, 1989, 1992

Think of it like a sprinter who wins the 100 metres by half the track. Messi’s eight is more than Ronaldo’s five and Platini’s three combined.

What happened at the 2026 Ballon d’Or?

The 70th ceremony was held at the London Palladium on 26 October 2026. It was the first held outside France, a tribute to Stanley Matthews, the very first winner in 1956, according to The National.

Live coverage from ESPN and DAZN reports that Harry Kane of Bayern Munich and England won the men’s award, ahead of Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé. Alexia Putellas won the women’s award for the third time.

Kane’s first Ballon d’Or leaves him with one. It does not touch the all-time table above.

Other Ballon d’Or records worth knowing

Stanley Matthews: first winner in 1956 and the oldest, at 41 years, 10 months and 17 days.
Ronaldo Nazário: youngest winner, aged 21 in 1997.
George Weah: first African winner in 1995 and still the only one.
Lev Yashin: the only goalkeeper to win, in 1963.
Fabio Cannavaro: the last defender to win, in 2006.

What happens next

The next Ballon d’Or will be decided on the 2026-27 season, with nominees expected to be revealed ahead of the ceremony. Messi will be 39 by then, so a ninth would be a surprise. In my opinion, the record is safe for a generation: no active player is close to five.

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