World Footballer of the Year

Short name
Footballer of the Year
Nation
—
Editions recorded
28

Editions

Season Rank Winner Club Nation Age Recorded value
2018 1 Luka Modric R. Madrid Croatia 33 29
2018 2 Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro Zebre Portugal 33 19
2018 3 Mohamed Salah Ghaly Liverpool Egypt 26 11
2017 1 Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro R. Madrid Portugal 32 43
2017 2 Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini Barcelona Argentina 30 19
2017 3 Neymar Paris Saint-Germain Brazil 25 7
2016 1 Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro R. Madrid Portugal 31 35
2016 2 Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini Barcelona Argentina 29 26
2016 3 Antoine Griezmann A. Madrid France 25 8
2015 Did not take place
2014 Did not take place
2013 Did not take place
2012 Did not take place
2011 Did not take place
2010 Did not take place
2009 1 Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini Barcelona Argentina 22 1073
2009 2 Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro R. Madrid Portugal 24 352
2009 3 Xavi Barcelona Spain 29 196
2008 1 Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro Manchester United Portugal 23 935
2008 2 Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini Barcelona Argentina 21 678
2008 3 Fernando José Torres Sanz Liverpool Spain 24 203
2007 1 Kaká A.C. Milan Brazil 25 1047
2007 2 Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini Barcelona Argentina 20 504
2007 3 Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro Manchester United Portugal 22 426
2006 1 Fabio Mamerto Cannavaro R. Madrid Italy 33 498
2006 2 Zinedine Yazid Zidane R. Madrid France 34 454
2006 3 Ronaldinho Barcelona Brazil 26 380
2005 1 Ronaldinho Barcelona Brazil 25 956
2005 2 Frank James Lampard Jr. Chelsea England 27 306
2005 3 Samuel Eto'o Fils Barcelona Cameroon 24 190
2004 1 Ronaldinho Barcelona Brazil 24 620
2004 2 Thierry Daniel Henry Arsenal France 27 552
2004 3 Shevchenko Andriy Mykolayovych A.C. Milan Ukraine 28 253
2003 1 Zinedine Yazid Zidane R. Madrid France 31 264
2003 2 Thierry Daniel Henry Arsenal France 26 186
2003 3 Ronaldo R. Madrid Brazil 27 176
2002 1 Ronaldo R. Madrid Brazil 26 387
2002 2 Oliver Kahn FC Bayern München Germany 33 171
2002 3 Zinedine Yazid Zidane R. Madrid France 30 148
2001 1 Figo R. Madrid Portugal 29 250
2001 2 David Robert Joseph Beckham Manchester United England 26 238
2001 3 Raúl R. Madrid Spain 24 96
2000 1 Zinedine Yazid Zidane Zebre France 28 370
2000 2 Figo R. Madrid Portugal 28 329
2000 3 Rivaldo Barcelona Brazil 28 263
1999 1 Rivaldo Barcelona Brazil 27 543
1999 2 David Robert Joseph Beckham Manchester United England 24 194
1999 3 Gabriel Omar Batistuta ACF Fiorentina Argentina 30 79
1998 1 Zinedine Yazid Zidane Zebre France 26 518
1998 2 Ronaldo FC Internazionale Milano Brazil 22 164
1998 3 Davor Suker R. Madrid Croatia 30 108
1997 1 Ronaldo Barcelona Brazil 21 480
1997 2 Roberto Carlos R. Madrid Brazil 24 85
1997 3 Dennis Nicolaas Maria Bergkamp Arsenal Holland 28 62
1996 1 Ronaldo Barcelona Brazil 20 329
1996 2 George Weah A.C. Milan Liberia 30 140
1996 3 Alan Shearer Newcastle United England 26 123
1995 1 George Weah A.C. Milan Liberia 29 170
1995 2 Paolo Cesare Maldini A.C. Milan Italy 27 80
1995 3 Jürgen Klinsmann FC Bayern München Germany 31 58
1994 1 Romário Barcelona Brazil 28 346
1994 2 Hristo Stoichkov Barcelona Bulgaria 28 100
1994 3 Roberto Baggio Zebre Italy 27 80
1993 1 Roberto Baggio Zebre Italy 26 152
1993 2 Romário Barcelona Brazil 27 84
1993 3 Dennis Nicolaas Maria Bergkamp FC Internazionale Milano Holland 24 58
1992 1 Marcel van Basten A.C. Milan Holland 28 151
1992 2 Hristo Stoichkov Barcelona Bulgaria 26 88
1992 3 Thomas Häßler AS Roma Germany 26 61
1991 1 Lothar Herbert Matthäus FC Internazionale Milano Germany 30 128
1991 2 Jean-Pierre Papin Olympique de Marseille France 28 113
1991 3 Gary Lineker Tottenham Hotspur England — 40

Newest edition first. Only the columns these editions actually fill are shown. Recorded value is award_history_winner.value exactly as stored, and what it counts depends on the award — goals for a top-scorer award, votes or points elsewhere. The export gives it no unit, so none is invented here. position_mask and info2 are also stored against each winner and are deliberately not shown: the first is a bitmask whose bit order does not match the position lookup, and the second is populated for under two percent of rows with no recorded meaning. Both are reported as unmapped rather than guessed at.