Ronaldo's 2008 voted greatest Ballon d'Or of all time
France Football's 70th-anniversary B.O.A.T. poll crowned the Manchester United edition — decided by one-euro fan votes, not journalists.
Cristiano Ronaldo's 2008 Ballon d'Or was voted the greatest edition in the award's 70-year history on Wednesday, as France Football announced the result of its B.O.A.T. — "Ballon d'Or of All Time" — a fan poll revealed two days after Harry Kane lifted the 2026 trophy.
The 2008 trophy was the first of Ronaldo's five, won as a Manchester United winger after a 42-goal season that delivered the Premier League and Champions League — making him the club's first winner since George Best 40 years earlier.
Lionel Messi's 2012 award — the 91-goal calendar year — finished second, with Ronaldo's 2017 edition third and Messi's 2023 fourth. The two rivals filled the top 12 places of the final ranking; Ronaldo Nazário's 2002 was the first edition by anyone else, in 13th.
Only multiple winners were eligible — a ten-man list also featuring Platini, Cruyff, Beckenbauer and Van Basten — and voters picked a single edition rather than a career.
The result is already disputed. Ballots were cast on the Ballon d'Or website at €1 per vote with no cap, and only around 5,000 fans took part — 93% of them voting more than once, according to Ouest-France. France Football stresses the B.O.A.T. is not an official trophy but a fan exercise, unlike the annual award decided by journalists or the jury-voted Super Ballon d'Or won by Alfredo Di Stéfano in 1989.
Sources: Ballon d'Or, MARCA, Ouest-France, Eurosport.
Photo: Gordon Flood via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
