European football’s long-memory debate is being handed to supporters through the BOAT, a public vote designed to identify the Ballon d’Or’s greatest winner of all time. The initiative is a fan poll rather than a new official honour, with the result due to be announced on 28 October through the organiser’s official accounts.
The vote is part of a wider effort to bring the Ballon d’Or brand closer to supporters around the world. It asks fans to judge the peak of the game’s most decorated individual figures, from Real Madrid’s Alfredo Di Stéfano to the modern rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Quick facts
- The BOAT is a supporters’ vote for the greatest Ballon d’Or winner ever.
- It does not create a physical trophy and is not an official Ballon d’Or ceremony award.
- Ten former winners make up the eligible field.
- The public result is scheduled for 28 October.
- The poll is separate from the one-off Super Ballon d’Or awarded to Alfredo Di Stéfano.
The shortlist contains Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Ronaldo Nazário, Marco van Basten, Michel Platini, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Kevin Keegan, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Di Stéfano. They are presented as the only possible winners in the contest, which focuses entirely on popular support.
That distinction matters because the BOAT is not a revival of the Super Ballon d’Or. The latter was a formal, physical award presented only once by France Football, and remains a singular chapter in the history of the prize.
Di Stéfano received that historic distinction after a vote involving a specialist jury, previous Ballon d’Or recipients and readers. The Real Madrid great finished ahead of other towering names, including Cruyff and Platini.
No further edition of the Super Ballon d’Or has been staged, and there is no confirmed date for its return. The BOAT instead offers supporters a separate verdict: a global choice of the Ballon d’Or era’s defining individual champion.
