BALLON D’OR

Dec. 5, 2018

Real Madrid's Croatia midfielder Luka Modric was named winner of the 2018 Ballon d'Or. Olympique Lyonnais' Norway striker Ada Hegerberg won the inaugural Ballon d'Or for women's football.

About:

Ballon d'Or ("Golden Ball") is an annual football award.
- It has been awarded since 1956, although between 2010 and 2015, an agreement was made with FIFA and the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year, and known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or.
- But the partnership was ended in 2016 and the award been reversed back to Ballon d'Or while FIFA also renamed its traditional award.
Presented by: France Football; a French weekly magazine containing football news from all over the world.
Who are honoured?
- It honours the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists.
- Originally, only European players were in contention for the Ballon d'Or. Since 2007 all players from around the world are eligible.