Cristiano Ronaldo won France Football’s BOAT fan vote on Wednesday, with his 2008 Ballon d’Or beating Lionel Messi’s 2012 triumph in a poll comparing individual award-winning campaigns.
Ronaldo’s 2017 success placed third. Between them, the Portuguese forward and Messi ranked in the top 12, before Brazil’s Ronaldo Nazário finished 13th with his 2002 award.
Organisers clarified that BOAT, short for Ballon d’Or of All Time, is a public vote, not another official honour. “It is neither a physical trophy nor an official award,” the Ballon d’Or website explained.
The initiative is also separate from the Super Ballon d’Or, which France Football awarded to Alfredo Di Stéfano in December 1989.
Unlike the annual award’s journalist-voted system, this poll let supporters choose a specific edition as the winner. Eligibility was restricted to players who had collected the Ballon d’Or at least twice.
Voting opened on October 1 and closed on Tuesday. Each entry cost one euro, and participants could vote repeatedly. They also received a historic photograph of the first Ballon d’Or and entered a draw for two tickets to the 2027 ceremony.
France Football’s participation figures show that 5,009 people voted more than once. Of those, 4,665 cast two to four votes, while 300 submitted five to nine. Another 44 participants voted between 10 and 26 times.
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Alongside the three players leading the rankings, eligible candidates included Marco van Basten, Michel Platini, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Kevin Keegan. Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Di Stéfano completed the field.
Ronaldo earned his first Ballon d’Or after helping Manchester United win the Premier League and Champions League. He scored 42 goals in all competitions that season. He won again in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017, all while playing for Real Madrid.
(With additional input from Marca and TNT Sports)
