Messi was considered the best of the World for 6 times and he is the player with the most Ballon d’Or of all time. Yet, Argentina only won the same 6 trophies in the history and the country is only in the 5th place in the ranking of countris with most Ballon d’Or.
Take a look at this list and see the players and the National teams that made history in the beautiful game.
10 – USRR
Ballon d’Or: 3
Lev Yashin (1963)
Oleg Blokhine (1975)
Igor Belanov (1986)
9 – Spain
Ballon d’Or: 3
Alfredo di Stéfano (1957, 1960)
Luis Suárez (1960)
2nd place: 5
3rd place: 9
8 – Brazil
Ballon d’Or: 5
Ronaldo (1997, 2002)
Rivaldo (1999)
Ronaldinho (2005)
Kaká (2007)
2nd place: 2
3rd place: 4
7 – Italy
Ballon d’Or: 5
Omar Sivori (1961)
Gianni Riveri (1969)
Paolo Rossi (1982)
Roberto Baggio (1993)
Fabio Cannavaro (2006)
2nd place: 9
3rd place: 3
6 – England
Ballon d’Or: 5
Stanley Matthews (1956)
Bobby Charlton (1966)
Kevin Keegan (1978, 1979)
Michael Owen (2001)
2nd place: 8
3rd place: 5
5 – Argentina
Ballon d’Or: 6
Lionel Messi (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019)
2nd place: 5
3rd place: 1
4 – France
Ballon d’Or: 6
Raymond Kopa (1958)
Michel Platini (1983, 1984, 1985)
Jean-Pierre Papin (1991)
Zinedine Zidane (1998)
2nd place: 5
3rd place: 11
3 – The Netherlands
Ballon d’Or: 7
Johan Cruyff (1971, 1973, 1974)
Ruud Gullit (1987)
Marco van Basten (1988, 1989, 1992)
2nd place: 4
3rd place: 6
2 – Portugal
Ballon d’Or: 7
Eusébio (1965)
Luís Figo (2000)
Cristiano Ronaldo (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017)
2nd place: 10
3rd place: 1
1 – Germany
Ballon d’Or: 7
Gerd Müller (1970)
Franz Beckenbauer (1972, 1976)
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1980, 1981)
Lothar Matthäus (1990)
Matthias Sammer (1996)
2nd place: 10
3rd place: 11