European Footballers of The Year since 1956

A list of European Footballers of The Year since 1956. The award is known as the Ballon d'Or and was originally conceived by France Football's chief magazine writer Gabriel Hanot, who asked his colleagues to vote for the player of the year in Europe in 1956.

Originally, journalists could only vote for European players at European clubs, meaning that players like Diego Maradona and Pelé were ineligible for the award. In 1995, there was a change in the rules to allow non-European players to be eligible for the award if they played for a European club. The first non-European to win after the rule change was Milan's George Weah in the same year. The rules were changed again in 2007 so that players of any nationality and from any club around the world could be eligible for the award. As a result, the number of journalists allowed to vote also increased; 96 journalists from around the world chose their top five players, as opposed to the 52 Europe based journalists in 2006.

As of 2010, three players had won the award three times each: Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, and Marco van Basten.