Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2008 Ballon d’Or leads an official all-time fan poll, putting his Manchester United peak ahead of Lionel Messi’s 91-goal year. Supporters can pay to vote as often as they like.
Ronaldo’s 2008 entry has 75% of the votes in the organizers’ published breakdown, followed by Messi’s 2012 award at 9% and Ronaldo’s 2017 win at 6%. The poll uses a different system from the Ballon d’Or’s usual voting process, in which journalists choose the annual men’s winner.
B.O.A.T., short for Ballon d’Or Of All Time, offers 32 choices drawn from the 10 men who have won the trophy at least twice. Each winning year gets its own entry. Ronaldo appears five times and Messi eight, so a vote for Ronaldo’s first award and one for his 2017 success go into separate totals.
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Each vote requires a digital-photo purchase costing €1. Another purchase buys another vote. Fans can repeat that purchase without a voting cap and can choose a different player each time.
The result will reflect both the choices fans make and how often they’re willing to pay for them. A supporter who purchases ten entries contributes ten votes. The published percentages don’t reveal how many individual voters are behind each entry’s total.
The years behind the vote
Ronaldo’s 2008 Ballon d’Or followed a season in which he scored 42 goals in 49 appearances across all competitions for United. He finished the 2007-08 Premier League campaign with 31 goals and added eight in the Champions League as United won both trophies.
In Moscow, Ronaldo’s header put United ahead of Chelsea in the Champions League final. He later had his penalty saved in the shootout, but United won anyway. The first of his five Ballon d’Or awards followed that year.
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Messi reached 91 goals for club and country in 2012, with 79 for Barcelona and 12 for Argentina. His total covered a calendar year, across parts of two club seasons. He collected that year’s Ballon d’Or in January 2013, his fourth consecutive win.
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Voting closes on October 27 at 11:59 p.m. Paris time, with the result due October 28. Participants also enter a draw for two tickets to the 2027 ceremony. The ballot will produce a winner among those award years, with each repeat purchase carrying the same weight as a new supporter’s first vote.
