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Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2008 season has won the first Ballon d’Or of All Time fan vote, finishing ahead of Lionel Messi’s record-breaking 2012. The result was published on Oct. 28, a day after voting closed, Reuters reported. That was two days after Harry Kane won this year’s actual Ballon d’Or in London.
The headline makes it sound like the debate is settled. It isn’t, and the reason is in the rules. Every vote cost one euro, about $1.12, and fans could buy as many as they liked. The result tells you which season the most committed paying fans backed, not which player football’s voters rate highest.
What the B.O.A.T. vote was, and what it wasn’t
France Football, the French magazine behind the Ballon d’Or, opened the poll on the official Ballon d’Or website on Oct. 1. Fans picked a single award-winning season, not a player. Only footballers who had won the Ballon d’Or at least twice were on the ballot, and each of their wins was listed as a separate entry, Sports Illustrated reported.
That gave the ballot 10 players and 32 seasons. Messi had eight entries and Ronaldo five, according to a full list published by TodoAlicante. The others were Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, Marco van Basten, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Franz Beckenbauer, Ronaldo Nazário, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Kevin Keegan.
There is no trophy. The organizers described it as “a fan initiative to celebrate the passion of supporters, not an official trophy,” according to World Soccer Talk. It is also separate from the Super Ballon d’Or, a one-off award Di Stéfano received in 1989.
Paid votes with no limit
Voters had to log in with personal details and pay one euro per vote. There was no cap, so a fan could keep paying to back the same season, TodoAlicante reported. Each payment also brought a downloadable photo and entry into a draw for two tickets to the 2027 ceremony, Gulf News reported, citing the official site.
Fans could also watch the percentages move while voting was open, Goal reported. That matters, because a live leaderboard in a pay-per-vote poll rewards the fan base that organizes.
Goal, citing Argentina’s TyC Sports, had the 2008 season at 62% and Messi’s 2012 at 13% in a report dated Oct. 19. The organizers’ Oct. 20 figures put the gap at 75% to 9%.
The organizers did publish one telling number with the result. According to Reuters, 5,009 people voted more than once. Of those, 4,665 voted two to four times, 300 voted five to nine times and 44 voted between 10 and 26 times.
Those bands put a floor and a ceiling on the repeat voting, by our count. At the minimum of each band, repeat voters cast at least 11,270 paid votes. At the maximum, it was 22,504.
The coverage we read gave no total vote count and no final percentages, so there is no way to tell what share of the result those votes made up, or which seasons they backed.
Why Ronaldo’s 2008 season won
The winning season has a strong case on the field. In 2007-08, Ronaldo scored 42 goals in all competitions for Manchester United, including 31 in the Premier League, which won him the Golden Boot, Sports Illustrated reported. United won the league and the Champions League.
His 42nd goal came in the Champions League final against Chelsea in Moscow, a header from a Wes Brown cross, PA Sport reported. He then had his penalty saved by Petr Cech in the shootout, before United won it 6-5 after a 1-1 draw.
Ronaldo won his first Ballon d’Or that December with 446 points, ahead of Messi on 281 and Fernando Torres on 179, according to the 2008 voting results. He was 23. He went on to win four more, in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
Messi’s 91-goal year finished second
Messi’s 2012 is the strongest individual scoring year on record. Guinness World Records lists his 91 goals for Barcelona and Argentina as the most scored in a calendar year, a mark he reached on Dec. 22, 2012. Guinness doesn’t count five more he scored in friendlies.
The case against it in a fan vote is silverware. Barcelona won only the Spanish Super Cup in that calendar year, TodoAlicante noted. Ronaldo’s 2008 came with the two biggest club trophies in Europe.
Messi still leads where it counts. He has won the real award eight times to Ronaldo’s five. His 2023 award finished fourth in this vote. For more on that run, see our guide to Messi’s trophies and records with Argentina.
The full ranking
Ronaldo and Messi took the top 12 places between them, with each holding five of the top 10. The top 10, as listed by Sports Illustrated and OneFootball via Yahoo Sports:
- Cristiano Ronaldo, 2008
- Lionel Messi, 2012
- Cristiano Ronaldo, 2017
- Lionel Messi, 2023
- Cristiano Ronaldo, 2016
- Cristiano Ronaldo, 2014
- Lionel Messi, 2015
- Cristiano Ronaldo, 2013
- Lionel Messi, 2011
- Lionel Messi, 2009
Messi’s 2019 and 2021 came 11th and 12th. Ronaldo Nazário’s 2002 was the best season by anyone else, in 13th. Messi’s 2010 award finished 14th, below that.
The bottom of the list says as much about the electorate as the top. Every pre-1990 winner finished 16th or lower. Di Stéfano, whose 1957 and 1959 seasons came 26th and 31st, is the only winner of the Super Ballon d’Or. A paid online poll in 2026 favors players with large, organized online fan bases, and the two biggest belong to Ronaldo and Messi.
What it does and doesn’t change
Nothing about the official record moves. Ronaldo has five Ballon d’Or wins and Messi has eight. For Ronaldo, the vote adds a fan honor to a career that includes the stats in our look at his six World Cups with Portugal.
The format will draw scrutiny if France Football repeats it. TodoAlicante called the one-euro charge a “controversial decision,” and Sports Illustrated noted the winner gets no physical trophy. None of the coverage we read said whether the poll will return. Its main prize, two tickets to the 2027 Ballon d’Or ceremony, goes to a fan drawn from the paid voters.