The Ballon d’Or organising committee has all but confirmed that a player doesn’t need to win a team trophy in a season to be eligible for the coveted prize, with several names in the race to bag the Ballon d’Or this season, especially after an exciting FIFA World Cup.
The committee has maintained that an individual footballer’s impact on the field holds greater significance than the number of team trophies won.
In a statement released by the Ballon d’Or, the committee highlighted footballers who won the prestigious award despite failing to bag a team trophy during that season. But such instances have been rare, with just six players achieving the feat in the award’s history.
“Stanley Matthews, the first Ballon d’Or winner in 1956, is also the first to
have won it without having claimed a team title during the calendar year (the Ballon d’Or has been decided on the sporting season since 2022),” the statement said.
“Denis Law matched him in 1964, as did Gerd Müller in 1970. The German had scored 10 goals at the FIFA World Cup that year, but his team only finished 3rd. Kevin Keegan, in 1978 and then Luis Figo, in 2000, also managed to win the most prestigious individual title despite a trophyless season,” the statement added.
The two leading contenders for the prestigious award this year who haven’t won a team trophy during the season are Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.
Trailing Mbappe and Lionel Messi, who finished with eight goals each in the Golden Boot race, were Jude Bellingham, Haaland, reigning Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele and Harry Kane.
Messi won the 2025 MLS Cup and the 2025 MLS Eastern Conference title with Inter Miami CF during the 2025–26 domestic football window and might also be a candidate for the Ballon d’Or.
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