𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Journalists, in short. I know. You wouldn’t trust journalists to decide which colour pants to put on in the morning, never mind who the best player in the world is, but this is a solemn duty that has been passed down the generations.

For the men’s award one journalist from each of the top 100 countries in the world, as decided by the FIFA rankings, is chosen as their respective nation’s representative. For the women’s award it’s one from each of the top 50. These jurors are given a shortlist of 30 players, from which they must pick a top five, awarding six, four, three, two and one points to their respective choices. The player with the most points wins the award.

If you were wondering why they have missed out five points, it’s to add extra weight to the top choice, to mitigate against an unsatisfactory situation where second place votes could decide the winner.

That shortlist of 30 names is settled upon by a panel that features the editorial staff of France Football and L’Equipe, any of the previous year’s jurors whose choices tallied exactly with the eventual top three, and ‘Ballon d’Or ambassador’ Didier Drogba.

In previous years, the players were judged over a calendar year, but in 2022 that was tweaked slightly to cover what was essentially a European season: from the previous August to July.