LIONEL MESSI WON BALLON D’OR WINNER AWARD 2021 FOR THE RECORD 7TH TIME

Why in news?

• Recently, Lionel Messi won the men’s Ballon d’Or award for a record seventh time.

About the Ballon d’Or Award

• The Ballon d’Or is one of the oldest and most prestigious individual awards in football that is presented annually by the French news magazine France Football.
• The prize has been awarded every year since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year after an agreement with FIFA and was known as FIFA Ballon d’Or.
• The award reverted to Ballon d’Or in 2016 and FIFA also went back to its own separate award. The recipients of FIFA Ballon d’Or are considered as winners of both awards.

Which player has won the Ballon d’Or award most number times?

• Lionel Messi has now won the Ballon d’Or award a record seven times, six while he was playing for Barcelona and first time while playing for Paris Saint-Germain.
• Cristiano Ronaldo follows closely with five Ballon d’Or awards, one while he was playing for Manchester United and four with Real Madrid.
• Besides them, three footballers have won the award three times each- Michel Platini of Juventus, Johan Cruyff of Barcelona and Ajax and Marco van Basten of Milan.
• Two Spanish football clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid lead the ranking for employing the greatest number of Ballon d’Or award winners, with 12 and 11 wins respectively.