Ballon d'Or 2008

World best footballer of the year Cristiano Ronaldo

The 53rd Ballon d'Or ( French for Golden Ball ) of the magazine France Football in 2008 for the second time for the world's best footballer of the year award. From 1956 to 2006 this trophy was awarded to Europe's Footballer of the Year . It is not identical to the FIFA World Player of the Year award, which has been awarded by FIFA since 1991 .

Voting procedure

The prize is awarded by a currently 96-member jury, which is composed as follows:

• One sports journalist from each of the 53 member associations of UEFA
• One sports journalist each from the currently 43 countries of those non-European associations that have participated in at least one World Cup finals.

Each juror awarded 5, 4, 3, 2 or one point to five players from the list given by the France Football editorial team with 30 suggestions. The entire performance of the players in the respective calendar year should be recognized. If two or more players get the highest number of points in total, there would be a runoff.

Result

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) with 446 points
2. Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) (281)
3. Fernando Torres (Liverpool) (179)
4. Iker Casillas (Real Madrid) (133)
5. Xavi (FC Barcelona) (97)
6. Andrei Arshavin (Zenit Saint Petersburg) (64)
7. David Villa (Valencia) (55)
8. Kaká (AC Milan) (31)
9. Zlatan Ibrahimović (Inter Milan) (30)
10. Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) (28)

Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich) came in 16th place (7 points), Michael Ballack (Chelsea) came 19th (4 points). Munich's Luca Toni was one of the five players who did not receive a single point.

Candidates

The editorial team had reduced the number of suggested players from 50 to 30 compared to previous years in order to achieve a "concentration on the truly best players":

Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) Sergio Agüero (Atletico Madrid) Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St. Petersburg) Michael Ballack (Chelsea) Karim Benzema (Lyon) Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus Turin) Iker Casillas (Real Madrid) Didier Drogba (Chelsea) Samuel Eto'o (FC Barcelona) Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal) Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) Zlatan Ibrahimović (Inter Milan) Kaká (AC Milan) Frank Lampard (Chelsea) Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona)

Pepe (Real Madrid) Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) Franck Ribéry (Munich) Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) Yuri Schirkow (CSKA Moscow) Marcos Senna (Villarreal) Luca Toni (Munich) Fernando Torres (Liverpool) Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United) Rafael van der Vaart (Hamburg / Real Madrid) Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid) Nemanja Vidić (Manchester United) David Villa (Valencia) Xavi (FC Barcelona)

statistics

All information from France Football of December 2, 2008, pp. 4–47

Votes from the editors from German-speaking countries

• Belgium ( La Dernière Heure ): 1st Ronaldo, 2nd Gerrard, 3rd Ribéry, 4th Casillas, 5th Arshawin
• Germany ( sports information service ): 1st Ronaldo, 2nd Torres, 3rd Arshavin, 4th Ribéry, 5th Messi
• Liechtenstein ( Liechtensteiner Vaterland ): 1st Xavi, 2nd Villa, 3rd Arshavin, 4th Messi, 5th Ronaldo
• Luxembourg ( La Voix du Luxembourg ): 1st Ronaldo, 2nd Messi, 3rd Torres, 4th Casillas, 5th Arshavin
• Austria ( ORF Sport ): 1st Ronaldo, 2nd Xavi, 3rd Arshawin, 4th Messi, 5th Villa
• Switzerland ( TSR ): 1st Ronaldo, 2nd Xavi, 3rd Messi, 4th Van der Sar, 5th Torres

Remarkable

• Cristiano Ronaldo was rated on all 96 ballot papers, 77 of them in 1st place. Messi was considered in 90 votes, Torres in 63 votes.
• In addition to the winner, seven other players from a total of 19 juries were awarded the highest number of points: Messi six, Torres five, Xavi three, Casillas two, Villa, Senna and Buffon once each. In contrast, the sixth-placed arshavin had three second places as the best result; however, 37 juries gave him at least one point.
• Seven editorial offices named all five top overall, but only the Saudi Arabian jury in the exact order of the overall ranking. The others were: Australia, China, Israel, Kuwait, New Zealand and Spain. Another 38 jurors awarded four of the top 5 points.
• Conversely, there were only two of the top five on each of the eleven ballots: Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, DR Congo, Malta, Macedonia, Nigeria, North Korea, San Marino, Turkey and Uruguay.

Most successful nations

1. Spain: 487 points, distributed among seven players (out of seven candidates)
2. Portugal: 446 points for one player (from two candidates)
3. Argentina: 291 points, split between two players (from two candidates)
4. Russia: 64 points for one player (from two candidates)
5. England: 47 points, shared between three players (out of three candidates)
6. Brazil: 31 points for the only candidate
7. Sweden: 30 points for the only candidate
8. Togo: 12 points for the only candidate
9. France: 7 points for one player (from two candidates)
10. Cameroon: 6 points for the only candidate

Remarks

1. ↑ Indonesia (for the Dutch East Indies, World Cup participants from 1938) is just as unrepresented in the jury as no longer existing states.
2. ↑ Le classement 2008 ( Memento of December 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ France Football of October 21, 2008, pp. 40-45