Written by Harry2ve…..

While the protagonists for the year’s best player have remained largely the same since 2008, FIFA’s split from Ballon d’Or means Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are competing for two separate gongs.
Ronaldo and Messi have dominated the award over the past eight years, with no other player winning the accolade as the world’s best since Kaka in 2007.
Ronaldo who was the hot favourite to scoop his fourth award having previously won it in 2008, 2013 and 2014 after winning both the Champions League with Real Madrid and Europ 2016 with Portugal just won it tonight.

But how has the most prestigious individual honour in world football evolved and does the new Best FIFA Men’s Player

Award now hold greater weight?

This year’s event on Monday in Paris, gave answers a Q&A on how the Ballon d’Or came about, when it joined and split from FIFA and all the details ahead of the upcoming ceremonies.

When did the Ballon d’Or begin?

The Ballon d’Or was first won by Sir Stanley Matthews in 1956 when the then Blackpool winger pipped Real Madrid great Alfredo Di Stefano to the prize in a points system based on voting by football journalists.
Originally, only European players were in contention for the Ballon d’Or, but from 1995 all players at European clubs were made eligible.
The award was presented by France Football from its inception all the way through to 2009, but has been revived for this year.

So what’s the FIFA World Player of the Year award?

Back in 2009, the Ballon d’or merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year award, and this time international journalists, national team coaches and captains were allowed to vote.
The FIFA World Player of the Year award had come into existence after Italia ’90, with West Germany stalwart Lothar Matthaus the first recipient in 1991 for helping his country to World Cup glory.
After 10 years of it being an award presented annually by the sport’s governing body to the world’s best male footballer, it was awarded to both sexes from 2001.
Brazilian Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane both won the award on three separate occasions, with the former and Ronaldinho the only two players to have won it in successive seasons.
Since 2010, it has has been presented exclusively to the best female player, in the same year as the inaugural FIFA Ballon d’Or.

How does the Best FIFA Men’s Player Award differ from the FIFA Ballon d’Or?

While France Football released a 30-man list for their award, a 23-man shortlist was also drawn up for the new Best FIFA Men’s Player 2016 award at the start of last month, which has since been whittled down to three.
FIFA ended its association with Ballon d’Or in September, meaning that Ronaldo and Messi will as of this year be competing for two separates gongs.

While solely journalists having voted for this year’s Ballon d’Or, the voting for the Best FIFA Men’s Player encompasses four separate groups.
It marks a change to the original format, with the general public now being allowed to cast their vote, alongside media representatives, national team coaches, and national team captains.
Each group has 25 per cent of the overall vote, with the public able to select from the shortlist via an online ballot and 200 media representatives selected to take part.

The Best FIFA Men’s Player for 2016 award was narrowed down to three players on December 2, with Messi and Ronaldo joined by Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann.
The winner was crowned at the Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony on January 9 in Zurich, along with the Best Women’s Player and FIFA Puskas award (for the best goal of 2016).

[b]LIST OF BALLON D’OR WINNERS BEFORE FIFA PARTNERSHI[/b]P
1956 Stanley Matthews
1957 Alfredo Di Stefano
1958 Raymond Kopa
1959 Alfredo Di Stefano
1960 Luis Suarez
1961 Omar Sivori
1962 Josef Masopust
1963 Lev Yashin
1964 Denis Law
1965 Eusebio
1966 Bobby Charlton
1967 Florian Albert
1968 George Best
1969 Gianni Rivera
1970 Gerd Muller
1971 Johan Cruyff
1972 Franz Beckenbauer
1973 Johan Cruyff
1974 Johan Cruyff
1975 Oleg Blokhin
1976 Franz Beckenbauer
1977 Allan Simonsen
1978 Kevin Keegan
1979 Kevin Keegan
1980 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
1981 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
1982 Paolo Rossi
1983 Michel Platini
1984 Michel Platini
1985 Michel Platini
1986 Igor Belanov
1987 Ruud Gullit
1988 Marco van Basten
1989 Marco van Basten
1990 Lothar Matthaus
1991 Jean-Pierre Papin
1992 Marco van Basten
1993 Roberto Baggio
1994 Hristo Stoichkov
1995 George Weah
1996 Matthias Sammer
1997 Ronaldo
1998 Zinedine Zidane
1999 Rivldo
2000 Luis Figo
2001 Michael Owen
2002 Ronaldo
2003 Pavel Nedved
2004 Andriy Shevchenko
2005 Ronaldinho
2006 Fabio Cannavaro
2007 Kaka
2008 Cristiano Ronaldo
2009 Lionel Messi