The Brazilian players who have won the Ballon d'Or

Last update 17 May, 2022 por Alberto Llopis

¿Quiénes son los jugadores brasileños que han ganado el Balón de Oro? Tied on five with England and only below Portugal, Francia, Holanda, Germany and Argentina, Brazil is one of the richest countries when it comes to Ballon d'Ors.

The Brazilian players who have won the Ballon d'Or

Ronaldo “The Phenomenon”

He started his list at 1997 making history. Ese año Ronaldo Nazário he would win his first Ballon d'Or by beating Predrag Mijatović or Zinedine Zidane. He would do it in the ranks of Inter Milan after wearing the FC Barcelona shirt for the first half of the year. That would be his only season as a culé, pero 34 goals in 37 games were enough to show the quality of the striker and give him what would be a double record: the first Ballon d'Or for a South American footballer and being the youngest footballer to receive it, con 21 years and 92 days.

An award that "O Fenomeno" would win again in 2002, again overtaking his compatriot Roberto Carlos on the right in the ranking, but this time from the hand of the eternal rival, of Real Madrid.

Rivaldo, the golden lefty

Sin embargo, Several players had achieved this recognition through. Among them another Portuguese, Vitor Borba Ferreira Gomes, better known as Rivaldo. Like Ronaldo on his first occasion, Rivo obtained the decoration as the best player thanks to the work he carried out with FC Barcelona.

Además, he would do it in a very special year for him, in which he would also get the RSS Award for the best footballer of the year, el FIFA World Player Award as an F player. C. Barcelona and lift the Copa América with his National Team 1999. Undoubtedly a round campaign that led him to establish himself as one of the best footballers in the world between the end of the years 1990 and early years 2000.

Ronaldinho, The "smile" of gold

Going back to chronological order, the next Brazilian to receive a Ballon d'Or would be Ronaldinho. The player who inspired an entire generation.

The year 2005 and Dinho did not run out of batteries. A league, a King's Cup, a Confederations Cup with Brazil, a Hat-Trick in the Champions League and a packed Santiago Bernabéu standing applauding a FC Barcelona player. It seemed that he could achieve everything with his dribbling, its verticality and its infinite smile. Merit more than enough to win the highest award that a footballer can get and to become a benchmark for the following generations, who grew up seeing things in the field unthinkable to date.

Ronaldinho would also be the last player to win a Ballon d'Or as a culé until the arrival of the best footballer in the world today and of all time, Lionel Messi.

Kaká, the last vestige

Following in the wake of “El Mago” would come Kaká, last Brazilian player to win a Balón de Oro. I would do it in 2007, starring together with Cristiano and Messi the youngest podium in history (25, 22 y 20 years respectively) and after an outrageously magnificent year at Inter Milan. A season that made him the footballer of the moment and led him to conquer the orejona and be the leader of the tournament with 10 annotations. A version of the “Italian Kaká” that unfortunately did not end up as expected at Real Madrid.

After him began the bipartisanship that has been in force for 14 years Leo and CR7. A two-way dispute that was only cut in 2018, when Luka Modric managed to snatch the award from them.