As the 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony draws close and Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane remains one of the betting favorites for the award recognizing the best footballer on the planet, it seems an apt time to look back at previous winners from the club. The Ballon d’Or was created in 1956, so how many Bayern players have won the award in the subsequent 70 years, and how many times did they win it?
Gerd Müller, Ballon d’Or winner in 1970
Of course it was him. Goal-scorer extraordinaire Gerd Müller was the first-ever Bayern player to win the Ballon
d’Or, picking it up in 1970 after another season filled with goals. He bagged 38 goals in 33 league appearances for Bayern en route to a league title, but even more importantly, he racked up 10 goals in the 1970 World Cup for West Germany, firing them to the bronze medal. This was arguably not even the finest season of the 24-year-old’s career, though, as Der Bomber later racked up 40 goals in the Bundesliga (in what seemed to be an unassailable record) and fired West Germany to European Championship glory. However, a teammate of Müller’s beat him to the Ballon d’Or that year…
Franz Beckenbauer, Ballon d’Or winner in 1972 and 1976
Franz Beckenbauer, of course, won the same trophies his club and national teammate did, capturing the 1971–72 Bundesliga title and lifting the European Championship with West Germany. While Müller banged in the goals, Der Kaiser pulled the strings as he revolutionized the center-back position with his sweeper style. He was the thrumming heartbeat, the safety net, and the leader all in one for Bayern. While the 1972 Bundesliga title started a three-year streak through 1974, 1974 also marked the birth of a new dynasty as the Bavarians won three consecutive European Cups through 1976. The last of those titles helped propel Bayern’s legendary #5 to his second Ballon d’Or.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Ballon d’Or winner in 1980 and 1981
Yes, younger readers, Bayern’s former long-time president and current supervisory board member once starred on the pitch for Bayern. And he was pretty good, too, joining in 1974 as an 18-year-old from Borussia Lippstadt and immediately winning two European Cups in a row after playing his way into the first team by 1976. The forward won multiple Bundesliga top scorer awards, added two German cups to his European titles, was voted German Player of the Year in 1980, and became German champion in 1980 and 1981. The years Rummenigge became German champion, incidentally, were also the years he won the Ballon d’Or—though he curiously missed out on the German Player of the Year honor despite being voted the world’s best player. Curious, that.
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