2008 Cristiano Ronaldo wins the B.O.A.T. for the best Ballon d'Or in history

Two days after the Ballon d'Or gala , comes the "presentation" of the B.O.A.T. , that new award invented by the French magazine France Football to crown the best Ballon d'Or in history . And the chosen one is Cristiano Ronaldo . Specifically, the 2008 one.

That was Cristiano's first Ballon d'Or, and it surpassed Messi's 2012 Ballon d'Or in the voting. The Portuguese and the Argentine occupy the top 12 spots, until Ronaldo Nazario appears with his 2002 award.

France Football prepared a special award for the latest edition of the Ballon d'Or, a new prize called the B.O.A.T. (Greatest Ballon d'Or of All Time), in which the usual voting rules were changed. Instead of journalists, it was the magazine's users who were responsible for choosing the best winner of all time.

All the footballers who have won the award on at least two occasions throughout their career were selected... and the vote was for one specific edition. In other words, people voted for, for example, the 2012 Leo Messi, the 2008 Cristiano Ronaldo.. This was the list of names competing for the award.

List of nominees for the B.O.A.T.

Leo Messi (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023)

Cristiano Ronaldo (2008, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017)

Ronaldo Nazário (1997 and 2002)

Marco van Basten (1988, 1989 and 1992)

Michel Platini (1983, 1984 and 1985)

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1980 and 1981)

Kevin Keegan (1978 and 1979)

Franz Beckenbauer (1972 and 1976)

Johan Cruyff (1971, 1973 and 1974)

Alfredo di Stéfano (1957 and 1959).

A prize that doesn’t come free: one euro per vote

Users could feel like the jury for once... but you had to pay one euro, of course, to take part. In return, two tickets to attend the 2027 gala were raffled off.

According to the French outlet, 5,009 people voted more than once. 44 people voted between 10 and 26 times; 300 people voted between 5 and 9 times and 4,665 people voted between 2 and 4 times. A tidy sum of money to crown their idols.