The Ballon d'Or award is an annual football award for the best international player from the previous season. The award is voted by a panel of selected journalists from the top football playing countries.
The Ballon d'Or underwent several big changes for 2022. The most significant change is that the award is now aligned with the regular football season (August to July) compared to previously when it was judged based on the calendar year (January to December). It means a player's entire season will be judged upon, rather than two half-seasons. The voting has changed too. It is now only from representatives of the top-100 ranked countries rather than all countries.
Below are the 30 nominees in the final order after voting. Seven-time winner Lionel Messi was not on the list (for the first time since 2005), though Ronaldo did make the cut (finishing 20th). The ceremony announcing the winners was held on October 17 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France.
The 2022 winner was favorite Real Madrid's Karim Benzema. He was the clear winner, leading the voting by 356 points ahead of Sadio Mané, the biggest gap between two players since 1998. He became the fifth Frenchman to win the award, and the first since Zinedine Zidane in 1998. Fittingly, it was Zidane who presented him the trophy in Paris.
The Socrates Award, which acknowledges the humanitarian work by a champion footballer, was first presented in 2022.
See the list of all previous Ballon d'Or winners, and the final standings for the women's Ballon d'Or in 2022.
Final order for the men's 2022 Ballon d'Or
Order | Player | Position | Club | Nationality | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Karim Benzema | FW | Real Madrid | France | 549 |
2 | Sadio Mane | FW | Liverpool / Bayern Munich |
Senegal | 193 |
3 | Kevin De Bruyne | MF | Man City | Belgium | 175 |
4 | Robert Lewandowski | FW | Bayern Munich / Barcelona |
Poland | 170 |
5 | Mohamed Salah | FW | Liverpool | Egypt | 116 |
6 | Kylian Mbappe | FW | PSG | France | 85 |
7 | Thibaut Courtois | GK | Real Madrid | Belgium | 82 |
8 | Vinicius Jr. | FW | Real Madrid | Brazil | 61 |
9 | Luka Modric | MF | Real Madrid | Croatia | 20 |
10 | Erling Haaland | FW | Man City | Norway | 18 |
11 | Son Heung-min | FW | Tottenham | South Korea | 5 |
12 | Riyad Mahrez | FW | Man City | Algeria | 4 |
13 | Sebastien Haller | FW | Ajax / B. Dortmund |
Ivory Coast | 2 |
=14 | Fabinho | MF | Liverpool | Brazil | 2 |
=14 | Rafael Leao | FW | AC Milan | Portugal | |
16 | Virgil van Dijk | DF | Liverpool | Netherlands | 1 |
=17 | Casemiro | MF | Real Madrid / Man United |
Brazil | 1 |
=17 | Dusan Vlahovic | FW | Fiorentina / Juventus |
Serbia | 1 |
=17 | Luis Diaz | FW | Porto / Liverpool |
Colombia | 1 |
20 | Cristiano Ronaldo | FW | Man United | Portugal | 0 |
21 | Harry Kane | FW | Tottenham | England | 0 |
=22 | Trent Alexander-Arnold | DF | Liverpool | England | 0 |
=22 | Phil Foden | FW | Man City | England | 0 |
=22 | Bernardo Silva | MF | Man City | Portugal | 0 |
=25 | Joshua Kimmich | MF | Bayern Munich | Germany | 0 |
=25 | Mike Maignan | GK | AC Milan | France | 0 |
=25 | Antonio Rudiger | DF | Chelsea / Real Madrid |
Germany | 0 |
=25 | Joao Cancelo | DF | Man City | Portugal | 0 |
=25 | Christopher Nkunku | FW | RB Leipzig | France | 0 |
=25 | Darwin Nunez | FW | Benfica / Liverpool |
Uruguay | 0 |
Related Pages
- Women's Ballon d'Or in 2022
- Predicted winner for 2022
- Ballon d'Or Home
- Men's Ballon d'Or Winner's List
- Football Awards Lists
- List of the FIFA male player of the year and FIFA female player of the year.
- History of the Ballon d'Or
- The Year in Sport: 2022