Ballon d’Or vs FIFA The Best awards: what’s the difference between them?

The 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony takes place today, Monday September 22. But that throws up some questions about another soccer prize giving event. Let’s clear that up...

The Best and the Ballon D’Or are the annual ceremonies where the greatest currently playing the Beautiful Game are celebrated following a schism between FIFA and France Football.

Soon after his election as president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino severed the organisation’s ties with soccer magazine France Football, ending the world governing body’s involvement with the Ballon d’Or award. This led to the creation of FIFA’s bespoke individual prize, ‘The Best’.

Although both awards have the same premise in awarding outstanding individual talent, there are some aspects to differentiate them.

Ballon d’Or

Created by France Football in 1956, the Ballon d’Or is generally regarded as soccer’s most prestigious individual award. Blackpool and England’s Stanley Matthews was its first winner, while Manchester City’s Rodri is the current holder of the men’s award. The Spanish midfielder won the award for the first time last October, polling 1170 votes, ahead of Real Madrid pair, Vinicius and Jude Bellingham.

FIFA became involved in the award from 2010 to 2015, when it was rebranded as the ‘FIFA Ballon d’Or’.

The winner is selected following the votes of a select number of journalists from around the world and, up until 2022, was based on player performance during the calendar year. As of last year, however, jurors have been instructed to take into account the previous season.

The Ballon d’Or awards ceremony has tended to take place in November, December, or January of the following year, but in 2022 was brought forward to October and now we’re seeing it a month earlier. The event has been held in Paris since 2016.

The awards have branched out to also include prizes for the best young player, women’s player, goalkeeper, coach...

FIFA The Best

Following the breakaway from France Football, FIFA staged the first ‘The Best’ ceremony in January 2017 in Zurich, with Cristiano Ronaldo picking up the first award. The voting for this award is carried out by an international jury which comprises national team managers and captains, and a pool of journalists. A percentage of the vote is also made by fans, who cast their ballot through the FIFA website.

The awards, which have so far been staged in either September, October, December or even January, are also based on performances in the most recent season, as opposed to the calendar year. Qatar played host in 2024.

The 2023 ‘The Best’ men’s award went to Lionel Messi, who picked up the men’s award for a record third time, while last year it was Real Madrid’s Brazilian star, Vinicius Jr. ‘The Best’ awards also recognise the campaign’s best women’s player, men’s goalkeeper, men’s and women’s coaches, and more.

Last year, a new category was added: the FIFA Marta Award, which is the women’s equivalent of the Puskás Award i.e. it is given to the scorer of the best goal of the last season in women’s soccer. The award is named after Brazilian Marta Vieira da Silva, who is widely considered the best female soccer player of all-time.