{"id":2726,"date":"2026-10-28T19:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T19:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/28\/ronaldos-2008-ballon-dor-named-best-of-all-time-in-fan-vote\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T19:00:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T19:00:46","slug":"ronaldos-2008-ballon-dor-named-best-of-all-time-in-fan-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/28\/ronaldos-2008-ballon-dor-named-best-of-all-time-in-fan-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo\u2019s 2008 Ballon d\u2019Or named best of all time in fan vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img width=\"771\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Ronaldos-2008-Ballon-dOr-named-best-of-all-time-in-fan-vote.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Ronaldo\u2019s 2008 Ballon d\u2019Or named best of all time in fan vote\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Efe Onodjae<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s 2008 Ballon d\u2019Or-winning campaign has been voted the best in the history of the prestigious individual football award in a public poll organised to celebrate its 70th anniversary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result was posted by football transfer journalist, Fabrizio Romano, in a Facebook post monitored by Vanguard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ronaldo\u2019s 2008 triumph topped the Ballon d\u2019Or of All Time (BOAT) ranking, ahead of Lionel Messi\u2019s 2012 edition, while the Portuguese forward\u2019s 2017 campaign came third.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Messi\u2019s 2023 season occupied the fourth position, followed by Ronaldo\u2019s 2016 campaign in fifth place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ranking featured 32 editions of the award won by 10 football legends, with supporters voting for the individual campaigns they considered the greatest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other editions featuring prominently in the top 10 included Ronaldo\u2019s 2014 and 2013 victories, as well as Messi\u2019s 2015, 2011 and 2009 campaigns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brazilian legend Ronaldo Naz\u00e1rio\u2019s 2002 triumph was ranked 13th, while Johan Cruyff\u2019s 1974 victory came 17th. Michel Platini\u2019s 1984 campaign occupied the 18th position, ahead of Franz Beckenbauer\u2019s 1976 edition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ronaldo won his first Ballon d\u2019Or in 2008 while playing for Manchester United, following an outstanding season in which he scored 42 goals in all competitions and helped the English club win the Premier League and UEFA Champions League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Portuguese forward subsequently won the award four more times, in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017, taking his career tally to five.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Messi, meanwhile, holds the record for the most Ballon d\u2019Or wins, with eight, including his 2023 triumph following Argentina\u2019s victory at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The BOAT ranking recognises individual Ballon d\u2019Or-winning campaigns rather than awarding a new official Ballon d\u2019Or or determining which player has enjoyed the greatest career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result is also separate from the annual Ballon d\u2019Or award, which is decided through a jury of specialist journalists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The poll has renewed debate among football supporters over the achievements of Ronaldo and Messi, whose rivalry has dominated discussions about the world\u2019s best player for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2026\/10\/ronaldos-2008-ballon-dor-named-best-of-all-time-in-fan-vote\/\">Ronaldo\u2019s 2008 Ballon d\u2019Or named best of all time in fan vote<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/\">Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Efe Onodjae Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s 2008 Ballon d\u2019Or-winning campaign has been voted the best in the history of the prestigious individual football award in a public poll organised to celebrate&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}