the balandor one of football's most prestigious Awards was first introduced in 1956 by the French magazine France football originally it was only awarded to European players playing in Europe which meant Legends like P and Maradona were never eligible it wasn't until 1995 that non-european players playing in Europe were allowed to win with George WEA becoming the first non-european recipient in 2007 the criteria expanded further to include all players worldwide and in 2010 it merged with FIFA's World Player of the Year award to become the FIFA ballondor however in 2016 the partnership with FIFA ended and it returned to being simply the ballondor lonel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the 21st century sharing the majority of the awards between them with Messi holding the record for the most wins The balandor Remains the ultimate individual Accolade in football celebrating the best of the best remember to like And subscribe to see more