The Ballon d’Or that Cristiano Ronaldo won in 2008 is leading the B.O.A.T. poll organized by France Football among fans. Lionel Messi’s 2012 edition is in second place. The Portuguese star has not won this special recognition yet: his lead reflects a vote that is still open.
The format invites fans to compare specific moments in time rather than choose an entire career. Each option corresponds to a year in which one of the candidates received the Ballon d’Or; as a result, the same player may appear multiple times and receive support in different categories.
For Ronaldo, the most popular option refers to his time at Manchester United. The Messi edition in second place corresponds to the calendar year in which he scored 91 goals. Those two awards currently lead a selection spanning different generations.
To be included, players had to have won the award at least twice. In addition to Messi and Cristiano, Ronaldo Nazário and Kevin Keegan are taking part; Michel Platini, Alfredo Di Stéfano, and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge are also on the list. Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, and Franz Beckenbauer complete the ten names.
What taking part entails
Voting takes place on the official Ballon d’Or website. Anyone who wants to support an option must select both the player and the edition they consider the most outstanding. Each vote costs one euro, so this is not a free poll.
The B.O.A.T. is a special public poll, separate from the annual Ballon d’Or selection. Its ranking reflects the support recorded in this poll: Ronaldo’s first-place standing is provisional and does not mean he has received another statuette from the regular award.
Image: Cristiano Ronaldo in a match in 12 in October 2010. Archive photo: Dagur Brynjólfsson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
