Every player to win the Ballon d’Or and World Cup in the same campaign
Lionel Messi’s record eighth Ballon d’Or victory depicted the influence of football’s grandest spectacle in determining the victor of the most illustrious individual prize.
World Cup brilliance has come hand-in-hand with Ballon d’Or success since the award’s 1956 inauguration, although it wasn’t until 1995 that it became a truly global prize. Originally, only players competing in Europe had been taken into consideration – hence Pele’s absence from the winner’s roll call.
Some have raised questions over just how significant a few weeks of football should be in determining the winner of an award which, until 2022, took into account the calendar year. Igor Belanov (1986) and Luka Modric (2018) are just two of many whose Ballon d’Or victory wouldn’t have been feasible if it wasn’t for their World Cup exploits, but these two failed to get their hands on the game’s most prestigious team prize.
Here are the seven players who ended up winning both the World Cup and Ballon d’Or in the same campaign.
Englishman Sir Stanley Matthews was the inaugural Ballon d’Or winner in 1956, with Sir Bobby Charlton following in his footsteps a decade later.
While Charlton enjoyed a successful (15 First Division goals in 1965/66) but trophyless campaign at Manchester United, it was his work in the summer of ’66 that thrust him towards European Footballer of the Year honours.
Sir Bobby Moore is largely regarded as the spiritual leader of England’s only World Cup-winning outfit, and Sir Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick in the final saw him etched into English footballing folklore, but Charlton was Sir Alf Ramsey’s talisman.
A powerful runner who could strike a ball as well as anyone, Charlton scored in England’s win over Mexico in the group stage before saving his finest performance for the semi-final success over Eusebio’s Portugal.
Rossi’s career is defined by his 1982 World Cup campaign.
The Italian’s goal record was impressive without being outstanding (134 goals in 340 games), and the most productive years of his career were spent at Vicenza – hardly a calcio giant.
In fact, his call-up to the Azzurri’s 1982 World Cup squad was initially criticised due to his role in the Totonero betting scandal, and he did little to silence those doubters with three anonymous performances in the first group phase.
However, Rossi’s campaign burst into life at the business end of the tournament, scoring an iconic hat-trick to down the mighty Brazil and send Italy to the semi-finals. A brace followed against Poland to tee up a showpiece encounter with West Germany. Of course, Rossi scored again, bagging the first in the Azzurri’s 3-1 win as he ended the tournament with six goals and the Golden Boot.
Lothar Matthaus formed a third of the German contingent that inspired Inter to the Scudetto in 1989, with teammate Andreas Brehme scoring the decisive goal which won West Germany the World Cup in 1990.
Matthaus was a force in Italy, both for the Nerazzurri and at Italia ’90. The powerful, all-encompassing midfielder netted 15 times in Serie A during the 1989/90 season before captaining his country to World Cup glory.
Der Panzer – the Tank – scored four times at the tournament, including twice against Yugoslavia in Germany’s opening game, and was largely credited for silencing Argentina’s Diego Maradona in the final.
For all his balletic brilliance and knack for delivering when it mattered most, Zinedine Zidane has been perceived to have had a pretty inconsistent club career.
Marcello Lippi built his Juventus side around the majestic French trequartista, and his impact in Turin was immediate. Juve reached three consecutive Champions League finals between 1996 and 1998, while Zidane’s magic helped the Bianconeri retain the Scudetto in ’98.
Zizou notched 14 Serie A goal contributions in 1997/98, as well as ten in just 11 Champions League appearances that season. It was one of Zidane’s most impressive campaigns at club level, and his performances in the 1998 World Cup final meant there was no doubt in regards to the victor of that year’s Ballon d’Or.
The Frenchman’s first goals of the tournament came in the showpiece event as two emphatic headers sunk a Brazil outfit crippled by Ronaldo’s mysterious illness.
Speaking of whom, Ronaldo was determined to make up for Brazil’s defeat in the 1998 World Cup final four years later in the Far East.
Having sustained a pair of major knee injuries at Inter, R9 no longer boasted the demonic burst of his apex, but he remained an elite forward who could still score all types of goals.
His finishing ability came to the fore at the 2002 World Cup as Brazil dashed the demons of ’98 by beating Germany in the final. Ronaldo ended the tournament with the Golden Boot after scoring a brace to beat the Germans. The redemption arc was completed with that year’s Ballon d’Or.
Cannavaro became just the third defender ever to win the Ballon d’Or in 2006.
The Italian undoubtedly performed superbly for a Juventus side that won Serie A in 2005/06 (later revoked for their role in the Calciopoli scandal), but the diminutive defender reached a new level entirely in Germany when he captained his nation to World Cup glory.
Italy kept clean sheets in five of their seven games, and Cannavaro’s performance against the hosts in the semi-finals is widely regarded as one of the greatest defensive showings of all time.
While Zidane pipped him to the tournament’s Golden Ball, Cannavaro was included in the Team of the Tournament, later named Serie A’s Footballer of the Year and the division’s Defender of the Year.
Messi’s 2022/23 campaign was far from shabby (32 Ligue 1 goal contributions in as many games) but it was his brilliance in Qatar that meant Erling Haaland’s ludicrous scoring season with treble winners Manchester City was not rewarded with a Ballon d’Or.
The greatest to ever do it embarked on a legacy-cementing campaign in the Gulf as Argentina overcame a stunning defeat against Saudi Arabia on Matchday 1 to topple holders France in the final. While a sound collective effort made their triumph possible, the team coalesced around the individual genius of Messi.
Argentina’s magic man played every minute, scored in every knockout game – including twice in the final – notched three assists, and earned Player of the Match honours in five of Argentina’s seven games as he cleared the only blemish on his otherwise imperious CV.
If there was a World Cup campaign worthy of toppling Haaland’s heroics, it was Messi’s in Qatar.