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2022 Ballon d'Or Results

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


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