Author: Gavin Hope

The Ballon d’Or is an annual award presented to best player in the world of that calendar year. Orginally introduced and presented by French magazine “France Football” it is considered the most prestigious individual award for footballers. The award returned in 2021 after not being presented in 2020 due to COVID Pandemic, with Lionel Messi being named the winner for a 7th time.

First awarded in 1956, I thought I would take a look back at the kits worn by the winners over the past 55 years – I will take the kit worn by the winner when presented not the previous season and they club they were playing for when awarded, not country.

1950s

The inaugural Ballon d’Or was won by Englishman Sir Stanley Matthews in 1956, the following three years was won by players from the leading team of the early European Competitions Real Madrid, with Alfredi Di Stefano winning two of these awards. A simple look for kits in these early days but the Blackpool kit did provide a unique look for any winner so far of the award.

1960s

The 60s was the first full decade of the award, with the ten winners coming from eight different countries, with Manchester United providing three winners each from different countries from The United Kingdom. Lev Yashin was also the first (and so far only) goalkeeper to claim the award in 1963, famous for his classic all black look when in goal. Again a simple look to the kits used, Barcelona with their hooped socks being some that sounds out from the other kits used. Manchester United’s three winners all appearing in the same kit across the five years between wins.

1970s

The 70s was dominated by players from German Clubs, with 6 of years won these players, Franz Beckenbauer (Bayern Munich) and Kevin Keegan (Hamburg SV) winning the award twice, of the other four years Johan Cruyff won three of these with both Ajax and Barcelona with Dynamo Kiev’s Oleg Blokhin being the other winner in this decade. This is the first decade where we see a significant change in kit design for one team, Bayern Munich’s first winners in a red / white striped shirt and then later in the decade a classic all red Adidas kit was now in use.

1980s

In the 80s it was Italian Clubs turn to dominate, with two clubs providing seven winners in the 10 years with two players Michel Platini (Juventus) and Marco Van Basten (AC Milan) winning 5 awards between them. Karl Heinz Rummenigge also claim two awards in 1980 and 1981 which completed 6 straight years if German Club dominance of the award until the Italian clubs won 7 of the next 8… the only difference being in 1986 when not who you would think would win in that World Cup year but Igor Belanov of Dynamo Kiev picked up the award. The Juventus kit used by their four winners was their classic kit of the 80s, which included its deep placket.

1990s

Although players from the Italian Clubs won six of the ten awards of the 1990s there seemed to more variety across the decade with no team having winners in consecutive years. There were winners from France, Germany and Spain and this was the first decade where we saw significant kits design changes with more regularity, this can be seen with the two winners from Juventus (Roberto Baggio and Zinedine Zidane) and Barcelona (Hristo Stoichkov and Rivaldo) appearing in very different looks for their respective clubs. Also Matthias Sammer’s win in the fluorescent yellow Nike kit for Borussia Dortmunt introduced a very different colour palette to the historical Ballon d’Or winners.

2000s

The first decade of the 21st Century again so a fairly even spilt of players across some of Europe’s largest clubs, Spain providing five of the winners from Real Madrid and Barcelona, a sign of things to come in the future years. English clubs provided winners for the first time since the 1960s with Liverpool (Michael Owen) and Manchester United (Cristiano Ronaldo). AC Milan provided two winners (Andriy Shevchenko and Kaka) but in very different looks for Italian giants.

2010s

The 2010s Ballon d’Or was dominated by two men, with Lionel Messi taking five award (making it six in total) and Cristiano Ronaldo winning the award four times (five in total), with the other award being that of Luka Modric in 2018 but this meant that the Ballon d’Or did not leave spain through out the decade. This is also showed the change in kit design for the big two Spanish sides, Barcelona changing their traditional stripes look with a variety of thickness of stripe, including one kit with just one central stripe and variety of shades of blue used, as well the one season with horizonital stripes. On the other hand, Real Madrid sticking with their classic all white look but changing the accent colours through the decade with black, orange, different shades of blue and pink all used for their winners kits.

2021

After being cancelled in 2020, and announced on Monday 29th November 2021 the returning Ballon d’Or was won by Lionel Messi, his 7th award overall and the first time he would have received the award not in the colours of Barcelona but of Paris St.Germain. Wearing a less than traditional PSG look but one based on their Air Jordan range with the shorts also designed in the iconic basketball shorts style.

Let me know your favourite kits worn by the winners of Ballon d’Or in the comments below or @Kit_Geek on Twitter.