The complete list of Cristiano Ronaldo Ballon d’Or wins: Who he beat and why

During the last two decades, two men have dominated the world of football. Those men are Messi, who has won plenty of his own Ballons d’Or, and Cristiano Ronaldo, a personal rival for more than 15 years.

The Portuguese international now plays in the Saudi League and is currently the second-most decorated player in the history of the Ballon d’Or behind Messi. Here we’ll look back at the events that led him to each award, and the calibre of opposition he beat.

Ronaldo Ballon d’Or wins

2008 – Golden boy crowned at last

In 2007, Cristiano Ronaldo finished second on the podium for the Ballon d’Or, just behind Kaká, who was a Champions League winner with AC Milan that year. However, this was the first time he reached the top three, so it was an iconic moment for the Manchester United winger.

Manchester United had a terrific season in 2007/08 though, which was largely thanks to the Portuguese star, who ended up with the Golden Boot. The team led by Sir Alex Ferguson won the Premier League and the Champions League, with CR7 scoring the first goal of the final.

His miss in the shootout from which United emerged victorious was inconsequential in the end, making him the main favourite for the Ballon d’Or award. And he won by a landslide with 446 points – 185 more than Messi.

2013 – The controversial one

In 2013, neither Messi or Ronaldo won the Champions League, and it was far from obvious that one of them would take home another trophy. Messi had won four in a row, but his year was below the standards he set himself in 2012.

A true contender was Franck Ribéry, who had an outstanding season and won it all in the red of Bayern Munich. Based on collective performances solely, there was no doubt that he was the main favourite to win the race.

Unfortunately for Franck, some individual performances got in the way, and FIFA controversially decided to postpone the vote deadline date by two weeks. That was all the opportunity Ronaldo needed to make a lasting impression, bagging a hat-trick that secured Portugal’s passage to the 2014 World Cup.

He duly won the Ballon d’Or by a very thin margin (27.99% of the votes). In the end, Ribery didn’t even make the top two, with Messi’s 24.72% beating his 23.36%.

2014 – ‘SIUUU’

As Messi proved in 2023, winning the World Cup can really help your chances, even if the Ballon d’Or runner up won a domestic and UCL treble on top of a PL debut campaign Golden Boot.

Arguably, Neuer was the name that stood out the most from the German national team, having more than played his part in ending a 24-year wait for the trophy. But surprisingly, Ronaldo won by a fairly important margin since he got 37.66% of the votes.

Winning the Champions League and scoring 61 goals – 17 of them scored in the European competition – allowed him to go home with the award for the second year in a row, and to celebrate it with his iconic “siuu” celebration live on stage.

Messi again snuck second place, while Neuer ended up third with a share of 15.72% – just 0.04% behind the Argentine.

2016 – The national hero

In their history, Portugal's best major competition was the Euro 2004 where the national team lost in the final to Greece on home turf, and triggered the tears from a then-teenage Ronaldo.

A dozen years later, Ronaldo would be in tears again during a Euro final, going off injured in the biggest game of his life. But those tears would become joyful, with Portugal defeating France on hostile turf.

With Ronaldo winning both the Champions League and the European Championship, there was little to no doubt that CR7 was going to bring the 2016 Ballon d’Or. In the end, he won by a huge margin, since Messi had less than half the votes Cristiano received.

2017 – The fifth (and final?) one

Winning the Champions League and La Liga for the second year in a row meant it was highly likely that a Real Madrid player would win the award in 2017. Obviously, the star of that team was still Cristiano Ronaldo, and he duly scooped it yet again to match Messi’s tally.

It had been a whole decade since they first stood together on the podium behind Kaka. The personal series was finely poised, with rich expectation that Ronaldo would go on to retake the lead over Messi he first held in 2008.

Of course, that didn’t happen and clearly never will, with Luka Modric’s run to the 2018 World Cup final and his instrumental role in Real’s third straight Champions League win ending CR7’s hold on the trophy, before Messi took the award in every odd-numbered year thereafter.

Prediction: Can Cristiano Ronaldo win the Ballon d’Or in 2024?

For those hoping to see some sort of Ronaldo v Messi revival, there can only be disappointment in store. The odds against him are astronomic in places, though the smart money is on at least two Real Madrid players making it into the podium places, with Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham outright and third-favourites respectively.

Of course, that isn’t a slight on Ronaldo’s skill or even his advanced age, as he’s still producing the goods for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League. However, the league itself remains a perceived ‘step down’ from elite European leagues for the time being, especially compared to the likes of the Premier League.

For that reason, he’s not going to win the Ballon d’Or by winning the Saudi Pro League, even if the AFC Champions League Elite trophy follows. Only another historic victory in an international competition – such as the next World Cup, when he will be 41 years old – would see Ronaldo as a contender for another Ballon d’Or.